• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.524-529
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• 2014

Two methods of feed preference trials were compared to evaluate the acceptability of 5 fresh foliages: Leucaena leucocephala, Moringa oleifera, Portulaca oleracea, Guazuma ulmifolia, and Brosimum alicastrum that was included as control. The evaluation included chemical analyses and forage intake by rabbits. The first method was a cafeteria trial; 12 California growing rabbits aged 8 wk, allocated in individual cages, were offered the five forage plants at the same time inside the cage, while in the second trial 60 California growing rabbits aged 8 wk, allocated individually, were randomly distributed into 5 experimental groups (n = 12/group); for each group just one forage species was offered at a time. The testing period for each method lasted for 7 d, preceded by one week of adaptation. The results showed that B. alicastrum and L. lecocephala were the most preferred forages while on the contrary G. ulmifolia was the least preferred one by rabbits. The results also revealed that the CV% value for the 2nd method (16.32%), which the tested forages were presented separately to rabbits, was lower and methodologically more acceptable than such value for the $1^{st}$ method (34.28%), which all forages were presented together at the same time. It can be concluded that a range of tropical forages were consumed in acceptable quantities by rabbits, suggesting that diets based on such forages with a concentrate supplement could be used successfully for rabbit production. However, growth performance studies are still needed before recommendations could be made on appropriate ration formulations for commercial use.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.321-325
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• 2001

Two experiments were conducted to examine the degradation rates of 4 tropical legume forages in rumen and intestine of Kedah-Kelantan (KK) cattle. Three KK cattle, averaging $173{\pm}17.15kg$ each fitted with a permanent ruminal and a T-shaped duodenal cannulae were used. The cattle were fed a maintenance diet (1% DM of their body weight) composing of 60% oil palm frond (OPF) pellet and 40% of a legume mixture of Arachis pintoi (AP) and Leucaena throughout the study. The overall DM and CP degradabilities in the rumen for Gliricidia sepium (GS) and AP were significantly higher than those for Leucaena leucocephala-Bahru (LB) and Leucaena leucocephala-Rendang (LR). This implies that LB and LR would have higher dietary protein flows into the intestine for the more efficient enzymatic digestion. However, the results of the present study suggested only limited proportions of the ruminal undegraded protein in the Leucaenas were digested in the intestine.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.191-195
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• 1993

The application of fertilizer P to Desmodium intortum at 40, 60 and 100 kg/ha resulted in the P content of the legume regrowth being 0.10, 0.13 and 0.16% on a dry matter basis. When the forages were fed alone to sheep in metabolism pens the corresponding voluntary intakes by sheep of the three forages were 27.3, 42.7 and $54.3g/W_{kg}{^{0.75}}$, respectively. Provision of additional P by rapid infusion into the rumen each morning before any fresh food was offered depressed the voluntary intake of all three feeds. It is suggested that the adverse effect of supplementary P was probably caused by an induced deficiency of either Ca or Mg and led to a reduction in microbial activity in the rumen.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.217-222
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• 2021

Barnyard millet is a short-lived tropical, short-term C4 plant and has superior vitality in humid conditions owing to its freshwater habitat. It shows strong adaptability to soils with poor drainage and low fertility, and efficiently competes with rice in paddy fields. Barnyard millet grain is used as feed in the Indian region and is a great source of dietary fiber, proteins, fats, vitamins, and some essential amino acids. Considering its high nutritional value and its potential as a food resource and fodder crop, various countries are showing interest in cultivating barnyard millet. However, in Korea, farm households have not yet recognized the benefits of cultivating barnyard millet, and research regarding this is scarce. In this review, the features of forage barnyard millet and its related research trends are discussed, with the aim of improving interest in this crop and promoting its cultivation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.51-61
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• 2016

In order to provide recommendations on the most useful forage species to smallholder farmers, eleven grass and eleven legume forages grown in Abomey-Calavi in Republic of Benin were investigated for nutritive value (i.e. chemical composition and energy content) and fermentation characteristics (i.e. gas and volatile fatty acid production, organic matter degradability). The in vitro gas production technique was used, incubating the forages for 120 h under anaerobic condition with buffalo rumen fluid. Compared to legume, tropical grass forages showed lower energy (8.07 vs 10.57 MJ/kg dry matter [DM]) and crude protein level (16.10% vs 19.91% DM) and higher cell wall content (neutral detergent fiber: 63.8% vs 40.45% DM), respectively. In grass forages, the chemical composition showed a quite high crude protein content; the in vitro degradability was slightly lower than the range of tropical pasture. The woody legumes were richer in protein and energy and lower in structural carbohydrates than herbaceous plants, however, their in vitro results are influenced by the presence of complex compounds (i.e. tannins). Significant correlations were found between chemical composition and in vitro fermentation characteristics. The in vitro gas production method appears to be a suitable technique for the evaluation of the nutritive value of forages in developing countries.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.665-674
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• 2019

Objective: In tropical regions, as in temperate regions where seasonality of forage production occurs, well-preserved forage is necessary for animal production during periods of forage shortage. However, the unique climate conditions (hot and humid) and forage characteristics (high moisture content and low soluble carbohydrate) in the tropics make forage preservation more difficult. The current study used natural ensiling of tropical forage as a model to evaluate silage characteristics under different temperatures ($28^{\circ}C$ and $40^{\circ}C$). Methods: Four tropical forages (king grass, paspalum, white popinac, and stylo) were ensiled under different temperatures ($28^{\circ}C$ and $40^{\circ}C$). After ensiling for 30 and 60 days, samples were collected to examine the fermentation quality, chemical composition and microbial community. Results: High concentrations of acetic acid (ranging from 7.8 to 38.5 g/kg dry matter [DM]) were detected in silages of king grass, paspalum and stylo with relatively low DM (ranging from 23.9% to 30.8% fresh material [FM]) content, acetic acid production was promoted with increased temperature and prolonged ensiling. Small concentrations of organic acid (ranging from 0.3 to 3.1 g/kg DM) were detected in silage of white popinac with high DM content (50.8% FM). The microbial diversity analysis indicated that Cyanobacteria originally dominated the bacterial community for these four tropical forages and was replaced by Lactobacillus and Enterobacter after ensiling. Conclusion: The results suggested that forage silages under tropical climate conditions showed enhanced acetate fermentation, while high DM materials showed limited fermentation. Lactobacillus and Enterobacter were the most probable genera responsible for tropical silage fermentation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.978-983
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• 2006

Forages from grazing lands comprise conventional feed resources for ruminants in the tropical region. A study was conducted to assess fodder productivity and nutritive potential of deferred forages of six silvopastoral traditional fodder banks in central northwest Tanzania, traditionally known as Ngitiri. The grazing lands were dominated by low quality increaser grass species: Eragrostis spp., Aristida spp., Urochloa spp., Rottboellia exaltata, Cenchrus spp., Cynodon spp. and Chloris spp., and forbs species. The grazing lands had low vegetative basal cover that varied (p<0.05) from 34.7 to 75%, and low forage biomass productivity that varied (p<0.05) from 0.76 to 3.69 tones (t) dry matter (DM)/ha. The forages contained low crude protein (CP) that varied (p<0.05) from 16 to 27 g/kg DM; and had high fibre contents, which varied (p<0.05) from 702-725, 497-573 and 119-225 g/kg DM for neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL), respectively. The forages were poorly degraded in sacco, and showed low DM degradability (DMD) characteristics of 74, 473 and 576 g/kg DM for DM washing losses (a), slowly degradable feed fraction (b) and potential degradability, (a+b), respectively; and low DMD at 48 h incubation, which varied from 317-345 g/kg DM, and contained low metabolizable energy (ME), (4.2-4.36 MJ/kg DM). The herbage forages would not meet protein and energy requirements for maintenance and production, which could be reflected through low animal productivity. Further work is needed to assess animal productivity (growth, milk, draft force) from conserved forages in traditional fodder banks in the dry season.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.1518-1523
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• 2004

This study was conducted to evaluate nutritive value of forages commonly used as ruminant feeds in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Seven species of grasses and five species of legumes were collected during the rainy season. The results showed that chemical composition, in vitro digestibility of dry matter (DMD), organic matter (OMD) and crude protein (CPD), in vitro gas production and metabolizable energy (ME) content greatly varied among the species of grass and legume forages. The CP content ranged from 6.6 to 16.2% in grass and from 17.5 to 29.1% in legumes; while NDF content of grass and legume ranged from 57.2 to 66.2% and from 24.4 to 55.6%, respectively. The DMD, OMD and CPD of grass ranged from 49.1 to 62.2%, 51.9 to 64.4% and 50.5 to 60.3%; while in legumes the values ranged from 59.1 to 71.8%, 65.2 to 72.0% and 68.2 to 71.6%, respectively. The ME content of grass varied from 6.4 to 9.3 MJ/kg and from 6.5 to 8.3 MJ/kg for legumes. In general, within species of grass Cynodon plectostachyus contained higher CP but was lower in NDF that resulted in much higher digestibility; a similar result was also found in Leucaena leucocephala for the legumes. The two forages also contained much higher ME than the others. In conclusion, the nutritive value of forages in North Sumatra, Indonesia during the rainy season was relatively high as ruminant feed, with the best quality noted for Cynodon plectostachyus and Leucaena leucocephala.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.1860-1870
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• 2022

Objective: The observation that temperate C₃ and tropical C₄ forage silages easily produce large amounts of ethanol or acetic acid has puzzled researchers for many years. Hence, this study aimed to assess the effects of epiphytic microbiota from C₃ forages (Italian ryegrass and oat) on fermentative products and bacterial community structure in C₄ forage (sorghum) silage. Methods: Through microbiota transplantation and γ-ray irradiation sterilization, the irradiated sorghum was treated: i) sterile distilled water (STSG); ii) epiphytic microbiota from sorghum (SGSG); iii) epiphytic microbiota from Italian ryegrass (SGIR); iv) epiphytic microbiota from oat (SGOT). Results: After 60 days, all the treated groups had high lactic acid (>63.0 g/kg dry matter [DM]) contents and low pH values (<3.70), acetic acid (<14.0 g/kg DM) and ammonia nitrogen (<80.0 g/kg total nitrogen) contents. Notably, SGIR (59.8 g/kg DM) and SGOT (77.6 g/kg DM) had significantly (p<0.05) higher ethanol concentrations than SGSG (14.2 g/kg DM) on day 60. After 60 days, Lactobacillus were predominant genus in three treated groups. Higher proportions of Chishuiella (12.9%) and Chryseobacterium (7.33%) were first found in silages. The ethanol contents had a positive correlation (p<0.05) with the abundances of Chishuiella, Acinetobacter, Stenotrophomonas, Chryseobacterium, and Sphingobacterium. Conclusion: The epiphytic bacteria on raw materials played important roles in influencing the silage fermentation products between temperate C₃ and tropical C₄ forages. The quantity and activity of hetero-fermentative Lactobacillus, Chishuiella, Acinetobacter, Stenotrophomonas, Chryseobacterium, and Sphingobacterium may be the key factors for the higher ethanol contents and DM loss in silages.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.378-384
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• 1997

The ruminal solubility of copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), and zinc (Zn) in eight Philippine forages was studied. These forages were: 1) grasses: paragrass (Brachiaria mutica (Forsk.) Stapf), stargrass (Cynodon plectostachyum Pilger), and napiergrass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumach.); 2) creeping legumes: calopogonium or calopo (Calopogonium muconoides Desv.) and centrocema (Centrocema pubescens Benth.); 3) tree lequmes: gliricidia or kakawate (Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Walp.), leucaena or ipil-ipil (Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit.), and sesbania or katuray (Sesbania grandiflora (L.) Poir). Nylon bags with samples were incubated for 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72h in three rumen cannulated sheep fed with timothy hay (Phleum pratense L.) at 2% body weight/d. The 0-h bags were washed with deionized water. There were species differences (p < 0.05) on the different solubilities of trace elements. At O-h incubation, the trend of solubility was Mo (54%) > Zn (43%) > Cu (38.7%) > Mn (29.5%). At 3-h incubation, all the elements except Mn had an average solubility above 50%. Combining particulate passage rate (1.9%/h) and various trace elements disappearance rates, the effective ruminal solubilization (ERS) of trace elements were computed. The ERS across species ranged from 44.6 to 89.9% for Cu, 29.9 to 84% for Mn, 66 to 95.1% for Mo, and 30.1 to 82.3% for Zn resulting to a trend of Mo > Zn > Cu > Mn.