Why We Need a Ruminant Revolution: Combating Malnutrition and Metabolic Illnesses to Enable Sustainable Development

Animal source foods (ASF) are essential for proper human development and function. Livestock in general, and ruminants in particular, are essential components of our sustainable global food systems. Of significant worldwide impact, diets with higher-than-recommended levels of ASF can correct the symptoms of metabolic illnesses, offering hope in arresting the current worldwide epidemic of diabetes and other metabolic diseases. Most dietary policy and recommendations are based on the ill-founded belief that plant-based, high-carbohydrate diets are “healthy.” High-quality scientific evidence does not support the belief that vegetarian diets are healthier than omnivorous or animal-based diets. A Therapeutic Carbohydrate Reduction (TCR) lifestyle approach has demonstrated its efficacy in reversing Insulin Resistance (IR) and the non-communicable diseases associated with, or caused, by it. True sustainability is a multifaceted topic consisting of societal, economic, and ecological aspects. The enormous suffering and financial costs of chronic illness must be acknowledged. The production of high-quality animal protein and animal fat by ruminants from feed resources humans cannot directly utilize will be fundamental to feeding a growing population. This essential food production can preserve and enhance the diverse environments where it takes place. We need a revolution in our thinking of what constitutes a healthy diet, of what causes chronic illness, of the vital role that animal product play in the human diet, and the essential nature of ruminant animal agriculture in meeting humanity’s needs. This will mean overthrowing established policies and institutions, and confronting vested belief systems. We’ll need an effort, analogous to the Green Revolution, to develop and deploy the knowledge and technology necessary to meet the needs of the mid-21st Century world

Computer-Based Forage Management Tools: Historical, Current, and Future Applications

Forage management has been an important human activity since the beginning of civilization. By comparison, the personal computer has been available only in the immediate past. The software developed to deal with the complexity of climate, soil, plant, animal, and socioeconomic factors has seen huge changes in a few decades. Mainframe computers facilitated numerical calculations for exploring relationships among dozens of variables. Personal computers opened the door for more individual scientist creativity and routine communication. Web-based communication globalised the option for multidisciplinary teams to tackle problems. Forage-related computer applications abound, allowing farmers, ranchers, and others to more effectively manage the land. This paper describes historical, current, and future computer-based applications that improve understanding and efficiency leading to more economically and environmentally sustainable forage-livestock systems

GIS-Based Forage Species Adaptation Mapping

Selecting forage crops adapted to the climatic and edaphic conditions of specific locations is essential for economic sustainability and environmental protection. Yet, currently, proper selection is difficult due to the absence of advanced selection tools. Significant improvements are being made in the process through Geographic Information System (GIS)-based mapping. Climate and soil GIS layers are being matched with forage characteristics through rules describing species tolerances. Better matching will reduce economic risks and environmental hazards associated with sub-optimal crop selection and subsequent performance. Once developed, these forage crop selection strategies and tools can be adapted for use with other crops. A matrix of species characteristics is being assembled for 6 major forage crops. GIS-based climate and soils maps are being developed and reviewed. Base layer climate and soils maps and the species adaptation maps will be placed on a CD-ROM to help educators, consultants, farmers, and ranchers match their conditions to suitable forage crop species. A WWW segment is being developed to provide a source of current information and links to original data and supplementary materials

Alfalfa hay quality survey

Published June 1981. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo

Environmental limitation mapping of potential biomass resources across the conterminous United States

Several crops have recently been identified as potential dedicated bioenergy feedstocks for the production of power, fuels, and bioproducts. Despite being identified as early as the 1980s, no systematic work has been undertaken to characterize the spatial distribution of their long-term production potentials in the United states. Such information is a starting point for planners and economic modelers, and there is a need for this spatial information to be developed in a consistent manner for a variety of crops, so that their production potentials can be intercompared to support crop selection decisions. As part of the Sun Grant Regional Feedstock Partnership (RFP), an approach to mapping these potential biomass resources was developed to take advantage of the informational synergy realized when bringing together coordinated field trials, close interaction with expert agronomists, and spatial modeling into a single, collaborative effort. A modeling and mapping system called PRISM-ELM was designed to answer a basic question: How do climate and soil characteristics affect the spatial distribution and long-term production patterns of a given crop? This empirical/mechanistic/biogeographical hybrid model employs a limiting factor approach, where productivity is determined by the most limiting of the factors addressed in submodels that simulate water balance, winter low-temperature response, summer high-temperature response, and soil pH, salinity, and drainage. Yield maps are developed through linear regressions relating soil and climate attributes to reported yield data. The model was parameterized and validated using grain yield data for winter wheat and maize, which served as benchmarks for parameterizing the model for upland and lowland switchgrass, CRP grasses, Miscanthus, biomass sorghum, energycane, willow, and poplar. The resulting maps served as potential production inputs to analyses comparing the viability of biomass crops under various economic scenarios. The modeling and parameterization framework can be expanded to include other biomass crops

Creating an International Forage and Grasslands Curriculum

Grasslands cover nearly 2/3 of the land masses of the world and make up 1/4 of the earth\u27s surface. Although various regions of the world have different names for their grasslands, common management principles govern maintaining and improving these lands for the food production and environmental services they provide. There is much talk today about “finding the balance between environmental protection and economic development” but there is little evidence of knowledge about grassland ecosystems being translated into effectively implemented policies designed to restore degraded grasslands. In contrast, there are many examples of the tragic consequences of economic development rather than biological capacity driving decision-making. Historically, people were connected with the land and understood the soil, plant, animal, human “circle of life.” This understanding led to appropriate management. Today, the vast majority of the developed world has little understanding of these natural processes and increasing percentages of the developing world live in cities and are disconnected from the natural ecosystems that service them. Even those few studying agricultural sciences have little appreciation for the scope and diversity of grasslands present in the world. Far fewer have an understanding of the importance of grasslands management principles and needed supporting policies. Thus, there is a need for teaching materials that can be used worldwide to convey the importance and proper management of grasslands and forage-livestock systems

Irrigated clover-grass pastures : eastern Oregon -- east of Cascades [2000]

Revised May 1983. Reprinted January 2000. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo

Developing a National Alfalfa Information System

Using state-of-the-art telecommunication technologies, this project is developing a comprehensive knowledge resource for alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.); the National Alfalfa Information System (NAIS). This project will serve as an improved model for Extension educational programs. Alfalfa is the most important forage crop in the USA and grown worldwide for feeding millions of livestock and in many cropping systems. As a legume, it is important in sustaining the environment and the productivity of agriculture. Information needs are present in every state and internationally. The NAIS is being developed through national and international cooperation, putting the best science-based alfalfa information and expertise at the fingertips of producers, consultants, extension workers, instructors, researchers, and users. Collaboratively developed materials will reduce duplication of effort. To make the knowledge easy-to-use, educational design, communication, and information science professionals are working with alfalfa experts in creating a WWW system and Web-aware CD-ROM. To ensure content quality, peer-review by members of multiple professional societies is included. A significant result will be around-the-clock availability of up-to-date, easy-to-use, and peerreviewed information. Shared workload and the peer-review process can influence faculty morale, efficiency, and effectiveness, an adjunct to maximizing the utilization of alfalfa worldwide by making the best information readily available

Alfalfa hay quality in Oregon

New grading standards for hay have been proposed by the American Forage and Grassland Council and the Federal Grain Inspection Service. This publication traces the development of these standards, describes new terminology, and reports on research conducted at Oregon State University to evaluate these new standards. Alfalfa hay samples obtained from five distinct geographical areas in Oregon were subjected to various chemical analyses (crude protein, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, in vitro dry matter digestibility, calcium, and phosphorous). Differences between values for regions and cuttings were quite small, with mean values falling within the limits presently defined as Grade 2 alfalfa hay. This indicates that management factors are more important than geographical region or cutting in determining hay quality. These results also point out the importance of hay testing in providing an objective measure of hay quality. Animal production studies also were conducted on alfalfa hays of varying quality. Acid detergent fiber was found to be a good predictor of both animal intake and digestibility. Milk production was greatest from cows fed rations containing high-quality hay when rations contained 45 percent hay, but no significant differences were observed when cows were fed rations containing only 30 percent hay.Published October 1981. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo