Vegetation-type effects on performance and meat quality of growing Engadine and Valaisian Black Nose sheep grazing alpine pastures

Willems, Helen; Kreuzer, Michael; Leiber, Florian

doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2012.10.015

Cited by 18 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Another is the 10% difference in daily gains, which was probably not the result of any difference in the quality and availability of feed. It is known from previous studies (Willems et al 2013) that both the steep and the flat pastures grazed in the present experiment offered grass of favourably high nutritional value for this altitude, and even the variation in fibre contents remained within the small range reported by Willems et al (2013) for high-quality alpine pastures. Also, there were no group differences in eating and rumination behaviour.…”

Section: Suitability Of the Experimental Setup For Selectively Influesupporting

confidence: 67%

Physical activity, forced by steep pastures, affects muscle characteristics and meat quality of suckling beef calves

et al. 2016

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SUMMARYOn steep slopes, grazing is associated with elevated physical activity. This is assumed to influence muscle metabolism, carcass and meat quality in beef cattle. However, there is a lack of experiments which allow distinguishing between physical activity and other factors of influence. In the present experiment, a setup was applied which excluded other factors as best as possible. Two groups of 12 Angus-sired suckling calves were each kept on high altitude pastures with either steep (whole area with about 40% inclination; S-calves) or with flat areas (0% inclination; F-calves). The two areas offered forage of similar nutritional quality. The calves, initially 18 ± 2·5 weeks old, were kept with their dams on the pastures for 11 weeks in a rotational grazing system. The calves were equipped with pedometers and rumination sensors to record physical activity and feeding behaviour, respectively. Slaughter took place on two dates immediately after the grazing period and carcass quality was assessed. Muscle fibre types were classified according to their contractile metabolism and post mortem (p.m.) protein degradation was quantified. The meat, aged for 21 days, was subjected to various physicochemical analyses and sensory evaluation. S-calves walked more steps and spent more time lying down than F-calves, whereas feeding behaviour was not affected by pasture inclination. The daily gains of S-calves were 10% lower compared with those of F-calves. Carcass characteristics were not influenced by pasture inclination. S-calves had a larger proportion of fast-twitch type IIX/B muscle fibres than F-calves. The opposite was observed for intermediate type IIA muscle fibres, whereas the proportion of slow-twitch type I muscle fibres was unaffected. Occasional differences were observed between S- and F-calves regarding indicators of p.m. proteolysis. In S-calves, compared with F-calves, meat from the longissimus thoracis muscle was juicier and showed a tendency to be of lighter colour, whereas meat from the biceps femoris muscle had a smaller shear force (24·5 v. 27·5 N in F-calves). In conclusion, 11 weeks’ exposure to environments forcing calves to exhibit different physical activities in a hypoxic environment was sufficient to cause adaptations in muscle metabolism and several, though small, differences in meat quality.

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Section: Suitability Of the Experimental Setup For Selectively Influesupporting

confidence: 67%

Physical activity, forced by steep pastures, affects muscle characteristics and meat quality of suckling beef calves

et al. 2016

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“…All three experimental alpine pasture types have developed on calcareous bedrock (22). The plant species composition and the nutrient contents of the experimental vegetation types have been reported by Willems et al (45). The first pasture (alpine flat HR), located at 1,950 m a.s.l., is dominated by herbs, is rich in nutrients, and has an average Ca:P ratio of 4.8 (high ratio, HR; Table 1).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 85%

Altitude, pasture type, and sheep breed affect bone metabolism and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D in grazing lambs

Willems

Leiber

Kohler

et al. 2013

Journal of Applied Physiology

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SESSION 2: Nutrition and health of herbivores 243 Effects of two protein sources on the periparturient relaxation of immunity to gastrointestinal nematode parasites Panagiotis Sakkas, Jos Houdijk, Spiridoula Ahanasiadou, Ilias Kyriazakis 244 Crude glycerin as an alternative energy source for dairy cows in mid lactation 245 Effects of irrigation and rates and timing of nitrogen fertiliser on proportions of maize plant fractions and nutritive value of whole crop maize silage for dairy cows M.R. Islam, S.C. Garcia 246 Effects of dietary molybdenum, sulphur and zinc on the excretion and hepatic accumulation of copper in sheep fed palm kernel cake based diets Abdul Razak Alimon, Michael Ivan, Syed Jalaludin 247 Mineral supplementation of lambing merino ewes grazing dual-purpose wheat under Australian conditions increases twin-lamb growth rate

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“…However, experiments on grass-legume interactions (typically using only a single grass species and a single clover species) have been carried out for many decades, including interactions with temperature and nitrogen supply [71][72][73], grazers [15] and FACE-studies of responses of grasses and legumes to elevated CO 2 and fertilisation [74]. Also, there have been experiments examining the effect on cow milk production and ruminant meat quality of grazing the animals on grasslands of differing species composition and richness (e.g., [75][76][77] and studies mentioned in the Introduction).…”

Section: Data and Inferences From Experimental And Observational Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Climate Change on Grassland Biodiversity and Productivity: The Need for a Diversity of Models

2018

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There is increasing evidence that the impact of climate change on the productivity of grasslands will at least partly depend on their biodiversity. A high level of biodiversity may confer stability to grassland ecosystems against environmental change, but there are also direct effects of biodiversity on the quantity and quality of grassland productivity. To explain the manifold interactions, and to predict future climatic responses, models may be used. However, models designed for studying the interaction between biodiversity and productivity tend to be structurally different from models for studying the effects of climatic impacts. Here we review the literature on the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and productivity of grasslands. We first discuss the availability of data for model development. Then we analyse strengths and weaknesses of three types of model: ecological, process-based and integrated. We discuss the merits of this model diversity and the scope for merging different model types.

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Vegetation-type effects on performance and meat quality of growing Engadine and Valaisian Black Nose sheep grazing alpine pastures

Cited by 18 publications

References 53 publications

Physical activity, forced by steep pastures, affects muscle characteristics and meat quality of suckling beef calves

Physical activity, forced by steep pastures, affects muscle characteristics and meat quality of suckling beef calves

Altitude, pasture type, and sheep breed affect bone metabolism and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D in grazing lambs

Effects of Climate Change on Grassland Biodiversity and Productivity: The Need for a Diversity of Models

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