The objective of the present study was to determine the diversity and causative factors in the textural profile of the Artisan Ranchero Cheese (ARC), a popular soft cheese made with raw cow's milk, which is consumed fresh. These factors included climatic conditions, production zone, cheese supplies, cheesemaking procedure and chemical attributes. Texture attributes were determined using texture profile analysis method. The relationship between texture and chemical attributes of the ARC were determined by a Factor Analysis. An Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering Analysis was used to differentiate the ARC manufactures into groups. Two groups were identified, production zone being the variable which explained the variation in the data. Finally, a Discriminant Analysis was performed to determine standardisation of the ARC attributes through the sampling periods. The 89% of cheese samples were correctly classified into their own cheese manufacture. This last analysis demonstrated that there was an important degree of standardisation of the cheesemaking procedure within each cheese manufacture, something that was not demonstrated before with artisan cheesemakers.

The limited availability of food, together with the constraints that traditional management systems impose on the natural foraging behaviour of donkeys, often results in severe under-nutrition. Few studies have been conducted into the digestibility of different forages and little information exists on nutritional requirements of donkeys. In order to measure digestible energy requirements of donkeys under tropical conditions, an experiment was carried out at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Science (CICA) and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Universidad Aut6noma del Estado de México located in the Toluca valley, Central Mexico. Thirty-two donkeys of a body condition typical for Central Mexico were divided into four groups of 8 animals each according to their sex and live weight: group 1 (G1) comprised male donkeys below the average body weight (102+/-5 kg); group 2 (G2) comprised male donkeys of average body weight (121.5+/-4 kg); group 3 (G3) comprised female donkeys below average weight (111.8 +/- 5 kg); and group 4 (G4) comprised female donkeys of average weight (127.6 +/- 5 kg). A diet of oat straw or maize stover and 15% alfalfa hay was offered to meet exact maintenance requirements. The donkeys were monitored for 13 months. The live weight of all animals was recorded daily in order to monitor whether maintenance requirements were being met. Mean daily digestible energy (DE) requirements were measured during the winter, spring, summer and autumn of 2003-2004. Digestible energy requirements of all four sex and liveweight groups were significantly (p > 0.05) higher during the spring than during the other seasons of the year (13.5, 18.0, 10.4 and 14.3 MJ DE per day during winter, spring, summer and autumn, respectively). Predicted DE requirements of donkeys with a live weight range betweenn 90 and 150 kg using the data from the present study were less than those predicted using scaled-down horse feeding standards.

Coffee is one of the main traded commodities worldwide, unfortunately, it generates massive amounts of by-products like coffee pulp (CoP), which could be utilized as an alternative feedstuff for cattle contributing to mitigate coffee production environmental damage. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of increasing levels of CoP supplementation on milk production, milk composition, and grass dry matter intake (GDMI) by dual-purpose tropical cows. A 4 × 4 Latin square experimental design was conducted, where four multiparous dual-purpose Holstein x Cebu cows with an average live weight of 477 ± 7 kg and milk yield of 12.1 ± 2.7 kg/d were used. The cows grazed 10 h/d on a Cynodon plectostachius sward with a stocking rate of three cows/ha. All cows received 6 kg/d DM of an experimental concentrate (EC), and the treatments consisted of four supplementation levels of CoP: T1 = 0, T2 = 0.6, T3 = 0.9, and T4 = 1.2 kg DM/d, which was provided on top of the concentrate and mixed with the EC. Grass intake was determined by the n-alkanes technique. A significant difference was observed for the average total daily DM intake (p < 0.02). No significant differences (p > 0.05) were observed for milk yield, milk composition, body weight, and GDMI for all the inclusion levels of CoP. It was concluded that CoP can be included at levels of 0.6 to 0.9 kg DM/d in the diets of cows without compromising milk yield or GDMI.

Modelado de la biodegradación en biorreactores de lodos de hidrocarburos totales del petróleo intemperizados en suelos y sedimentos (Biodegradation modeling of sludge bioreactors of total petroleum hydrocarbons weathering in soil and sediments)

The aim of this work was to evaluate if the n-alkanes (C32) technique can be used to determine voluntary dry matter intake (DMI) and dry matter digestibility (DMD) in grazing donkeys. Two experiments were carried out; in trial 1 DMI and DMD were measured using n-alkanes in four caged donkeys. In trial 2, n-alkanes were used to predict DMI and DMD in six donkeys grazing a star grass sward (Cynodon nlemfl uensis). Results from both experiments suggest that the n-alkanes technique can be used to predict DMI and DMD with similar results than those obtained with other more sophisticated or expensive techniques.