Objective:
The aim of this experiment was to determine the effect of feeding pineapple waste silage (PWS) as the source of roughage replaced in Napier grass silage (NGS) on the nutrient intakes, energy status, and growth performances of growing Myanmar local cattle.
Materials and methods:
Eight growing Myanmar local cattle were randomly allocated into two groups, which were adjusted for age, sex, and body weight. Treatments were control (70% NGS + 30% concentrate) and PWS (45% NGS + 25% PWS + 30% concentrate). This experiment lasted for 6 weeks, including adaptation, and feed intake, energy status, and body weight gain were measured.
Results:
The higher (
p
< 0.05) intakes of dry matter, crude protein, non-fiber carbohydrate, neutral detergent fiber and energy, and energy balance were observed in the PSW group than in the control group. Although the initial and final body weights of both groups were not different (
p
> 0.05), the body weight gain and average daily gain were significantly higher (
p
< 0.05) in the PSW group than in the control group. Feeding PWS as a roughage source at 25% of diet improved the nutrient intake, energy balance, and body weight gain of growing Myanmar local cattle.
Conclusion:
Thus, PWS could be used as the source of roughage replaced in NGS in Myanmar local cattle with the improvement of productive performances.
Ruminants can achieve high productivity when the diet includes concentrates; however these are often expensive due to competition with humans and mono-gastric animals. This experiment was conducted to determine the effect of partial inclusion of Albizia saman pods (ASP) in a Commercial Concentrate (CC) on the performances of dairy cows. Twelve cross-bred Holstein Friesian cows (472±13 kg) in the 12th week of lactation were randomly allocated into four treatment groups with three replicates accoding to the completely randomized design. The four treatments were control diet-CD [35% urea-treated-rice-straw (URS; 79g crude protein (CP)/ kg dry matter (DM)) and 65% CC (contained 40% cottonseed cake, 35% broken chickpea and 25% chickpea husk on an as fed basis and provided 200g CP/kg DM)], D1[35% URS + 60% CC + 5% ASP (189g CP/kg DM)], D2 (35% URS +55% CC + 10% ASP) and D3 (35% URS + 50% CC + 15% ASP). Cows were fed treatments for 60 days. Dry matter intake was significantly higher (p<0.05) for cows in the D3 treatment compared with the other three treatments, however there were no significant differences in the DM digestibility of treatments. Nitrogen intake and faecal-nitrogen of cows offered the D3 treatment were significantly higher (p<0.05) than those of cows offered the other three treatments. In contrast urine-nitrogen and nitrogen utilization were not significantly different among the treatments. The average milk yield (4% fat-corrected-milk) increased as the percentage of ASP was increased in the diets, however the composition of milk did not differ significantly between treatments. The costs of TDN/kg and per kg of milk was highest for the CD treatment and the lowest was found in D3 treatment (p<0.05). These results suggest that Albizia saman pods could be replace up to 15% of the commercial concentrate fed to lactating Holstein Friesian cross-bred cows without detrimental effects.
Biochars are used to improve soil quality and crop productivity as well as to increase carbon sequestration in soil. However, it is important to identify the characteristics of biochar prior to its application because of the positive and negative effects on soil and crop productivity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of charcoals on the growth and seedling quality of Quercus serrata and Prunus sargentii in a containerized seedling production system. Two of the charcoals used in our research were from oak tree; one produced at 1200 C and the other at 700 $ 800 C, and a bamboo charcoal produced at about 800 C. Three charcoals were mixed with artificial soil (peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite with a ratio of 1:1:1 (v/v/v)), and applied commercial fertilizer at two concentrations; 0.5 and 1.0 g L À1. Growth parameters, such as height, root collar diameter, and dry weight, were decreased in charcoal treatments compared to control. However, charcoal treatments significantly increased the quality index of seedlings by 8.3% in Q. serrata and by 19.9% in P. sargentii. Our results suggested that charcoal can be applied to improve seedling quality in the containerized Q. serrata and P. sargentii seedling production system.
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