Simple SummaryThe worldwide demand for productivity and quality meat, eggs, and other animal products is increasing. More and more people are expressing concerns relating to product quality and animal welfare. Our study aimed to provide scientific knowledge regarding how welfare factors contribute to quantity and quality of chicken. We used 400 Beijing You chickens to compare welfare factors by providing free dietary choice under cage rearing, and further comparing cage rearing with the free-range rearing system. Results showed that under cage rearing, free dietary choice of mealworms and fresh grass contributed to better meat quality, gait score and foot pad dermatitis than the conventional cage feeding and rearing system. This also gave rise to higher values of blood platelets and a richer gut microbial composition. As compared to caged chickens, free-range chickens developed better meat quality, gait score, and feather conditions, as well as a richer microbial composition. Our work provides a comprehensive understanding of welfare factors under both cage and free-range systems, and also broadens knowledge of health-related gut microbial composition in chickens.AbstractPoultry welfare has been extensively studied; however, there is a lack of rigorous scientific knowledge relating to the different aspects of welfare factors and how this may contribute to the production quantity and product quality as well as the welfare of chickens. Therefore, we conducted an integrated study to compare welfare factors in chickens by providing free dietary choice under cage rearing, and further comparing cage rearing with free-range rearing. One hundred chickens each were allocated to a cage rearing group with conventional feeding (CC), a cage rearing group with free dietary choice of mealworms (FDM), a cage rearing group with free dietary choice of mealworms and fresh grass (FDMG), and a free-range rearing system group with free dietary choice of mealworms and fresh grass (FRMG). Results showed that under cage rearing, free dietary choice contributed to better meat quality and gait score, higher values of blood platelets, and a richer gut microbial composition, but poorer egg production than CC chickens. As compared to FDMG, FRMG chickens showed better meat quality, gait score, and feather conditions, as well as a richer gut microbial composition; however, they had poorer egg production and a poorer foot pad and foot feather condition. We conclude that free dietary choice and free-range rearing systems improve the product quality, gait score, and microbial richness of chickens.

The accident at Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Station (NPS) extensively contaminated the agricultural land in the Tohoku region of Japan with radioactive cesium [sum of cesium-134 ( 134 Cs) and cesium-137 ( 137 Cs)]. We evaluated the status of radioactive cesium (Cs) contamination in soil and plants at the Field Science Center of Tohoku University, northern Miyagi prefecture, 150 km north of the NPS. In seven pastures with different management, we examined: (1) the distribution of radioactive Cs in soil, (2) the concentration of radioactive Cs in various herbaceous plant species and (3) the change in radioactive Cs content of plants as they matured. We collected samples of litter, root mat layer (root mat soil and plant roots), and subsurface soil (0-5 cm beneath the root mat) at two to three locations in each pasture in December 2011 and May 2012. The aboveground parts of herbaceous plants (four grasses, two legumes, and one forb species) were collected from May 9 to June 20, 2012, at 14-d intervals, from one to five fixed sampling locations in each pasture. The distribution of radioactive Cs in soil differed among pastures to some degree: a large proportion of radioactive Cs was distributed in the root mat layer. Pasture management greatly influenced the radioactive Cs content of herbaceous plants (p < 0.001); plant species had less influence. Radioactive Cs content was highest (> 3 kBq kg −1 dry weight) on May 9 and significantly decreased with maturity (p < 0.001) for most of the pastures, whereas it remained low (0.04-0.18 kBq kg −1 dry weight) throughout the measurement period in the pasture where composted cattle manure was applied. The soil-to-plant transfer factor was negatively correlated to pH(H 2 O) (R 2 = 0.783, p < 0.001) and exchangeable K content (R 2 = 0.971, p < 0.001) of root mat soils, which suggests that surface application of composted cattle manure reduces plant uptake of radioactive Cs by increasing the exchangeable K content of the soil. The radioactive Cs content of plants decreased with plant maturity; its degree of decrease (May 9 to June 6) was smaller in legumes (80.6%) than grasses (55.5%) and the forb (58.6%). Radioactive Cs content decreased with plant maturity; also, the proportion remaining in the aboveground plant was higher in legumes (80.6%) than grasses (55.5%) and the forb (58.6%).

This study examined the rate of herbage production and herbage quality of bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flu¨gge) using data from five grazing trials in the low-altitude region of Kyushu, south-western Japan, in an effort to (a) evaluate productivity of bahiagrass pastures, (b) analyse its relationship to meteorological, vegetational and managerial variables, and (c) obtain implications for better management of bahiagrass pastures. The rate of herbage production, ranging from )56 to 213 kg DM ha )1 day )1 , tended to increase from spring (April-May) to mid-summer (July) and decrease thereafter. The rate was expressed by a multiple regression equation where nitrogen fertilizer rate, air temperature, rainfall and herbage mass had positive effects. Dry matter digestibility (DMD) and crude protein (CP) concentration of herbage were in the range of 471-727 and 84-161 g kg )1 DM respectively. DMD was expressed by a regression equation where the day number from 1 April and herbage mass had negative effects, and the sampling height and nitrogen rate had positive effects. CP concentration was expressed by an equation showing a positive effect of nitrogen rate and a negative effect of herbage mass. The results indicate that management of bahiagrass pastures should aim at maintaining herbage mass closely above the critical level below which intake by grazing animals is restricted, in order to increase quality and ensure quantity. This is particularly important when nitrogen fertilizer is applied.

This study quantified herbage mass and feeding behavior by animals at a fine spatial scale, in a 1.1‐ha bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flügge) pasture progressively (4 or 5 days) grazed by a herd of 32–33 beef cows and 8–13 calves in three seasons (spring, summer and autumn). Herbage mass was nondestructively estimated every day, using an electronic capacitance probe, at 91 fixed locations (50 cm × 50 cm; approximating a feeding station scale) along a permanent line transect. At the same time, selection and use of the individual locations by cows were measured every day, in terms of the number of visits, number of bites and residence time. Vegetation of the pasture created a trade‐off between availability (herbage mass) and quality (nitrogen concentration, dry matter digestibility) in summer and autumn but not in spring. There were always considerable location‐to‐location variations in the feeding behavior of animals; that is, some locations were not visited and bitten at all or were visited infrequently (once or twice daily) and grazed only for a short time (<10 s daily) receiving relatively few bites (<10 bites daily), whereas some locations were frequently visited (5–10 times daily) and utilized for a long period (>30 s daily) receiving many bites (>30 bites daily). Although regression analysis showed a tendency for animals to select and use locations with higher herbage mass in spring and those with lower or intermediate herbage mass in autumn as a result of the seasonally different availability–quality relationships, neither herbage mass nor herbage quality was an absolute factor determining the choice and use of locations by animals. The results show that the choice and use of fine‐scale locations by animals foraging in actual grasslands are not fully explained by major forage factors such as mass, nitrogen and digestibility.

Spatial distributions of herbage mass and utilization were investigated at a small patch scale in a bahia grass (Paspalum notatum Flügge) pasture progressively grazed with beef cows, using a method combining sward and animal measurements. For a 6‐day grazing period, pre‐grazing herbage mass (Mpre) and rate of defoliation (D) were non‐destructively estimated every day, using an electronic capacitance probe, at 91 fixed locations (50 cm × 50 cm each) along a permanent line transect. At the same time, ingestive behavior by cows at the individual locations was measured every day, in terms of the number of visits (NV), total residence time (TR), total number of bites (NB), residence time per visit (TRV), number of bites per visit (NBV) and biting rate (RB). Spatial distribution patterns of herbage mass and utilization variables clearly illustrated which locations of the pasture were highly available, frequently visited, grazed longer, received more or faster bites and heavily defoliated during the progressive grazing. The mean and CV values of the spatial distributions showed that cows visited more locations more evenly by shifting from one location to another more frequently as the grazing progressed. The study also revealed that Mpre became more heterogeneous and D tended to be more homogeneous with the progression of grazing. The relationships between the herbage utilization variables and herbage mass showed that locations with lower herbage mass were more frequently visited, grazed longer and received more bites on the first 5 days, although the rate of defoliation was usually lower. Thereafter, neither locations with lower herbage mass nor those with higher herbage mass were preferred by cows. These results showed how vegetation patchiness and patch utilization by cows changed with decreasing feed resources in a pasture.