Endophyte-infected, tall fescue hay utilization by exercised, yearling horses

Fescue toxicity causes substantial production losses in sheep, cattle, and horses. These losses are attributed to an endophyte, Acremonium coenophialum. However, our results indicate that Quarter horse yearlings can be fed endophyte-infected tall fescue hay for at least 106 days with no detrimental effects on either growth or exercise performance. However, these findings have not been substantiated in other classes of horses or in horses consuming endophyte-infected fescue for longer durations

Agronomic and silage quality traits of winter cereals

Agronomic and silage quality traits were examined for 12 winter cereals harvested at two stages of maturity. Forage dry matter (DM) yields were higher at the mid-dough than the early-heading stage. Post 90 barley had the highest whole-plant DM yield at the early-heading stage, and Presto triticale had the highest yield at the mid-dough stage. Newton wheat had the lowest whole-plant DM yield at both stages of maturity. The first cutting of all varieties originally was intended to be at the late-boot stage, but harvest was delayed by frequent rainfall and wet soils in May, and field-wilting conditions were less than ideal. The range in heads emerge d was 23 to 87%, and the range in the silage DM content at early-heading stage was 19.2 to 46.4%. Both crude protein (CP) and ash contents were higher for the early-heading cereals than the mid-dough. All 24 silages were of relatively low forage quality, as evidenced by high neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) percentages. Only five silages, the early-heading stage Tomahawk wheat; mid-dough stage Presto triticale; and the mid-dough stage Kanby, Post, and Post 90 barleys, had less than 60% NDF and 40% ADF. Extensive lodging occurred in virtually all cereals before the mid-dough stage harvest

Effects of wheat gluten and plasma protein on growth performance and digestibility of nutrients in nursery pigs

An experiment was conducted to determine the nutritional value of wheat gluten and spray-dried porcine plasma in diets for weanling pigs. For the experiment, 120 pigs (14 lb avg initial body wt) were used in a 35-d growth assay. Treatments fed from d 0 to 14 postweaning were: 1) a dried skim milk-dried whey-soybean mealbased control; and 2, 3, and 4) spray-dried wheat gluten, spray-dried porcine plasma, and a blend of the wheat gluten and porcine plasma used to replace dried skim milk on a protein basis. All pigs were fed the same corn-soybean meal-dried whey-based diet from d 14 to 35. For d 0 to 14, pigs fed porcine plasma protein had greater average daily gain and average daily feed intake than pigs fed wheat gluten. However, for d 14 to 21 (i.e., during the transition period to the phase II diet), pigs fed diets with wheat gluten had the greatest feed intake and rate of gain compared with pigs fed other protein sources during phase I. Overall, pigs fed diets with wheat gluten and(or) plasma protein had greater rates and efficiencies of gain than pigs fed dried skim milk. The results indicate that spray-dried porcine plasma protein improves growth rate for the initial postweaning phase; however, feeding spray-dried wheat gluten during phase I results in improved growth performance during the transition to a phase II diet

Effect of bacterial inoculants on the fermentation and preservation efficiencies and nutritive value of alfalfa silage for growing steers

Two silage bacterial inoculants from Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. were evaluated using second-cutting alfalfa. The Pioneer brand 1174® inoculant and a Pioneer experimental inoculant each increased the rate and efficiency of the ensiling process in both farm-scale and laboratory-scale silos. The two inoculants increase d the DM recovery in the farm-scale silos compared to the untreated silage. Steers fed the experimental inoculant-treated silage gained faster (P<. 10) (2.56 vs. 2.37 lb per day), had a 4.0% higher DM intake, and were 4.3% more efficient than steers fed the untreated silage. The 1174-treated silage supported a numerically but not statistically better steer performance than the control silage. When the DM recovery results were combined with the feed per gain results, the silages with 1174 and experimental inoculant produced 5.3 and 10.5 lb more steer gain per ton of crop ensiled, respectively, than the control silage