NIR Spectroscopy for Predicting the Nutritional, Anthelmintic And
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NIR spectroscopy for predicting the nutritional, anthelmintic and environmental effects of sainfoin Irene Mueller-Harvey, Marta Martin Lorenzo, Elisabetta Stringano, R. Barnes, J. Oliver, Aikaterini Theodoridou, Jocelyne Aufrere, B. Hatew Chuko, Wilbert Pellikaan, Foteini Manolaraki, et al. To cite this version: Irene Mueller-Harvey, Marta Martin Lorenzo, Elisabetta Stringano, R. Barnes, J. Oliver, et al.. NIR spectroscopy for predicting the nutritional, anthelmintic and environmental effects of sainfoin. 8. International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores (ISNH8), Sep 2011, Aberystwyth, United Kingdom. Cambridge University Press, Advances in Animal Biosciences, 2 (2), 2011, Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores (ISNH8). hal-02747141 HAL Id: hal-02747141 https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02747141 Submitted on 3 Jun 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 241 The role of sheep in saltbush domestication – what can they tell us? H Norman1,3, P Jessop2,3, M Wilmot1,3 1CSIRO Livestock Industries, Western Australia, Australia, 2Industry & Investment NSW, New South Wales, Australia, 3CRC Future Farm Industries, Western Australia, Australia Email: [email protected] Introduction Climate change, leading to shorter and more variable seasons, represents a major challenge for livestock producers in southern Australia. Native perennial shrubs such as saltbushes (Atriplex spp.) are currently used in semi-arid and saline livestock systems to buffer seasonal feed shortages. A major limitation to saltbush systems is that the shrubs tend to accumulate high levels of salt (up to 30% of DM), have low organic matter digestibility (OMD) and accumulate a range of plant secondary compounds (Norman et al. 2010). The majority of commercial plantations of saltbush are based on ‘wild’ material and farmers report significant differences in the relative preference between shrubs within plantations. The palatability of forage concerns the interrelationship between flavour (odour, taste and texture) and postingestive feedback from nutrients and toxins (Burritt and Provenza 2000). What are herbivores telling us about saltbush when they selectively graze some shrubs before others? The aim of this work was to investigate differences in the relative palatability of provenances of old man saltbush (Atriplex nummularia). We tested the hypothesis that two flocks of sheep in different geographical locations will have similar preferences amongst 27 provenances of old man saltbush. Materials and methods Provenances of old man saltbush were collected from 27 sites across Australia and grown in two plantations in Western Australia (Tammin) and New South Wales (Condobolin). The provenances included two subspecies; Nummularia (n = 16) and Spathulata (n = 11). Each plantation contained approximately 20 000 individuals (over 700 of each provenance), which were planted in randomly allocated groups of 4 plants within 8 replicate blocks. The plantations were fenced into 4 plots for grazing. Two years after establishment the plots were grazed with unrelated flocks of 1 year old Merino sheep at stocking densities of 25 and 50 sheep/ha (2 blocks per site for each). Defoliation of the shrubs was assessed when about half of the biomass had been eaten using a visual ranking with scores ranging from 0 (untouched) to 5 (all leaves removed). Laboratory analyses of biomass from the provenances were conducted according to the methods described in Norman et al. 2010. 3 Linear regression was used to assess the Nummularia relationship between relative preferences at the Spathulata two sites. 2 Results There was a significant relationship in the relative preferences of sheep amongst provenances at the two sites (R2 = 0.83, P < 0.001). The sheep at Tammin and Condobolin 1 demonstrated similar likes and dislikes across the R2 = 0.83 range of provenances. The most striking result is provenences in Condobolin in provenences Mean preference scores from scores from preference Mean that subspecies Nummularia was consistently preferred to subspecies Spathulata. Analysis of 0 biomass samples from the provenances suggests 01234that the animals could have been using Mean preference score from provenences in Tammin nutritional wisdom – subspecies Spathulata had significantly lower OMD (P < 0.001), crude Figure 1 Relative preferences of sheep amongst 27 provenances of protein (P < 0.001) and higher salt (P < 0.001). old man saltbush grazed at two sites. The higher the score, the Within subspecies Nummularia, differences in greater the defoliation of shrubs within the provenance. relative preference were significant (R2 = 0.79, P < 0.01), indicating that shrub selection within the subspecies was not random; however it is unclear what was driving these differences. There were no significant linear relationships between preference score and OMD, OM, crude protein or the other minerals measured. It is possible that the sheep are selecting for or against a mineral or secondary plant compound that we have not measured. There was no significant linear relationship between relative preferences of provenances within subspecies Spathulata. Conclusions The inclusion of herbivores in the early stages of plant domestication offers an opportunity to select lines with higher relative palatability thus leading to higher voluntary feed intake (VFI). Variation in VFI accounts for at least 50% of the variation that is observed in feeding value of forages (Ulyatt 1973). This approach also offers an opportunity to screen for nutritional or anti-nutritional traits that can be detected by the animals. We believe that this approach is valuable when dealing with perennial plant species that are new to agriculture. References Burritt, E.A., Provenza, F.D., 2000. Journal of Chemical Ecology 26, 1991-2005. Norman, H.C., Revell, D.K., Mayberry, D.E., Rintoul, A.J., Wilmot, M.G., Masters, D.G. 2010. Small Ruminant Research, 91, 69-80 Ulyatt, M.J., 1973. In: Butler, G.W.B., R.W. (Ed.), Chemistry and Biochemistry of Herbage, Academic Press, New York, pp. 131-175. 242 Intensification alternative for pasture-based systems in Australia: a complementary forage system whole farm study S R Fariña, S C Garcia, W J Fulkerson The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia Email: [email protected] Introduction Australian dairy farmers are facing decreasing availability of land and water and declining terms of trade. In this context, systems that are able to increase milk production per ha from home-grown feed, beyond the potential of pasture only, are sought. The complementary forage system (CFS) was developed for this purpose, based on the integration into a pasture based dairy farm of a forage crop rotation that reported a utilised yield of more than 40 t DM ha-1 year -1 (Garcia et al., 2008). The objective of the present study was to evaluate the feasibility of implementing a CFS to achieve 25 t dry matter (DM) of home-grown feed ha-1year-1 over the whole farm area and converting this into 35,000 litres of milk ha- 1 year-1. Materials and methods A two-year whole farm study with 100 milking cows on 21.5 ha evaluated the implementation of a CFS that combined an area with a rotational sequence of two or three forage crops per year with an area of pasture in 35 and 65% of the farm area, respectively. Cows were fed 1 t DM of concentrates lactation-1 as the only brought-in feed in the diet. Utilisation and nutritive value of all forages and milk yields of individual cows were measured daily; body condition and body weight weekly, and milk composition fortnightly. Individual cows and paddocks were considered as experimental units for animal related and forage related variables, respectively. Results Over 26 t DM ha-1 year-1 was utilised over the whole CFS farm for the two years of the study (Table 1). This utilised forage had a mean metabolisable energy value of 10.2 MJ kg DM-1 and crude protein content of 20.5% DM. The mean ± standard deviation daily DMI over the two years of the study was 20.4 ± 2.6 kg-1 cow-1 day-1 and the proportion of each feed fed was: 42.6% pasture, 9.8% legumes plus forage rape, 30% maize silage and 17.6% concentrates. Table 1 Mean ± standard error of the mean forage yield (t DM ha-1year-1) for each forage section of the farmlet and total for the whole farm [complementary forage system (CFS)] for years 1 and 2. Pasture Double crop Triple crop Total (CFS) Year 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 Pasture (t DM ha-1 year-1) 23.9 ±1.4 20.8 ±1.3 - - - - - - Forage rape (t DM ha-1 year-1) - - - - 6.6 ±0.6 7.5 ±1.2 - - Legumes (t DM ha-1 year-1) - - 6.4 ±0.2 9.6 ±0.2 4. ±1 5.2 ±1.2 - - Maize (t DM ha-1 year-1) - - 19.9 21.6 21.9 28.6 - - Total 23.9 20.8 26.3 31.2 32.5 41.3 26.0 26.6 Note: values in Table 1 are the arithmetic mean of individual paddocks yields and not a weighted average in relation to their size. Table 2 Mean ± standard error of the mean milk yield (L cow-1 lactation-1 corrected to 305 days and L ha-1 year-1) and milk composition (kg) for the whole farm [complementary forage system (CFS)] and from home-grown feed meaned over the two years. Milk (L) Fat (kg) Protein (kg) Yield cow-1 (lactation 305 days) 7,653 ± 105 321 ± 4 273 ± 10 Yield ha-1 year-1 (from home-grown feed) 27,831 1,166 993 Yield ha-1 year-1 (total) 34,499 1,445 1,231 Conclusions This study has shown that a high production forage crop rotation can be successfully integrated into a pasture- based farm system to increase the production of milk from home-grown feed well beyond the limits of a pasture only system.