جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « ذرت علوفه ای » در نشریات گروه « علوم دام »

The dry climate and water scarcity in most areas of Iran caused to serious restriction in planting fodder. Therefore, it is very important to find new fodder sources to feed ruminants in order to reduce the ration costs. One of the new sources of fodder that may have a favorable nutritional value are plants of the Paulowniaceae family in China, East Asia and some parts of Iran. Several types of Paulownia are known in the world. These plants are known for their high growth rate and intense photosynthesis, which are specific to C4 plants, and with wide leaves with a diameter of about 90 cm. The commercial production of Paulownia wood generates a large quantity of leaves, which are typically used as natural fertilizers.At the age of about 6 to 8 years, the production leaf of each Paulownia tree reaches about 100 kg. When the leaves have a favorable nutritional value, they can be used as fodder in feeding ruminants. In Iran, there has been no study on the nutritional value of Paulownia leaves for use in animal feed. Therefore, the aim of this research was to investigate the chemical composition of Paulownia leaves and the chemical composition, gas production parameters, digestion and fermentation characteristics of the silages from the mixture of different levels of Paulownia leaves (Tebjoo hybrid variety) and fodder corn in vitro. The corn forage and Paulownia leaves (Tebjoo hybrid variety) were prepared. At first, the chemical composition of corn forage and Paulonia leaf samples was determined based on the conventional methods. Then, both forages were chopped into 2-4 cm sizes using a hand chopper for silage preparation. Experimental treatments included silages containing different ratios of fodder corn and Paulownia leaves (0:100, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 and 0:100). The materials were compacted in the plastic containers and the silage period lasted 60 days. Determining the chemical composition of fresh fodders and the nutritional value of experimental silages including chemical composition, in vitro gas production and fermentation parameters, digestibility and enzyme activity were carried out based on a completely random design. Results indicated that dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), ether extract (EE), lignin, non-fibrer carbohydrates (NFC) and water soluble carbohydrates content of fresh Paulownia leaves were 266, 911, 173, 402, 201, 35.5, 86.4, 404 and 91.2 g/kg DM, respectively. The mentioned chemical composition in Paulownia silage were 273, 902, 164, 393, 191, 38.8, 74.5, 386 and 25.4 g/kg DM, respectively. With increasing the proportion of Paulownia leaf in silage, DM, CP, lignin, EE, ammonia nitrogen concentration increased linearly (P<0.05). However, OM, NDF and ADF decreased linearly (P<0.05). By increasing the ratio of Paulownia leaf to corn in th silage, in vitro gas production (GP) in 24, 36 and 48 h, GP potential (coefficient b) and short-chain volatile fatty acids concentration decreased linearly (P<0.05), although it linearly increased ammonia nitrogen concentration and microbial protein synthesis (P<0.05). The carboxymethyl cellulase and filter paper degrading activities decreased linearly with increasing the inclusion level of Paulownia leaf in silage (P<0.05). However, ruminal alpha-amylase and protease activity showed a linear increase (P<0.05). The present study showed that the Paulownia leaf of Tebjoo hybrid variety has a favorable nutritional value as a new forage source in animal nutrition. Also, the preparation of silages including different ratio of Paulownia leaves and corn is recommended for animal feeding in the conditions of significant shortage of protein resources in the country. Future research is warranted to investigate how Paulownia leaf affect ruminant performance.

Du to limitation of feed resources in Iran, recently research workers tried to find new feed resources, where they introduce new fodder beet varieties to farmers. Regarding the characteristics of the fodder beet, it must be preserved as silage for progressively use in animal feeding, but no appropriate technology was stablished for ensiling of fodder beet. Ensiling is the well nown technology for preserving of fresh forages, but it is difficult to ensile the fodder beet, because of very low dry matter (DM) content. However, using additives (dry roughages and concentrates) as total mixed ration may be applied as a technology for preserving fodder beet silage. Therefore, this research was conducted to prepared a total mixed ration (TMR) silage based on fodder beet in comparison to corn silage and determine their nutritive values in sheep.

Three experimental diets including: 1) TMR based on corn silage (CTMR), 2) TMR silage (CTMRS) based on similar formula of treatment 1 and 3) TMR silage based on fodder beet (FBTMRS) were prepared. Digestibility and voluntary intake of the treatment diets were determined with three treatments and five replicates by in vivo method, using of 5 mature male Shal sheep (with 5 years old age and 80 kg body weight).

The DM contents of the CTMRS and FBTMRS waere 40 and 39.7 percent with pH of 3.95 and 4.06 respectivly. Average daily DM intake (DMI) was 1294g in control, 1301g in CTMRS but 1579g in FBTMRS that were significantly higher (P<0.05) in FBTMRS. Organic matter (OM) intake was significantly (p<0.05) higher (1450 vs 1206 and 1214 g) for the FBTMRS than the other treatments. Similar trend was obsereved when the intake was calculated based on methabolic body weight. Digestibility of DM, OM, organic mater in dry mater (DOMD) and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) were respectively 71.6, 74, 69.1 and 51.5 percent for CTMRS that were statistically (p<0.05) higher than those of the other treatments but no differences were obtained between the control and FBTMRS. The rumen pH, was affected (p<0.05) by the treatments before morning feeding so that it was the lowest in control, but the highest in FBTMRS (6.11 vs 6.85 and 7.01). However, rumen pH was not varied between the treatments at 3h and 6h post feeding. The rumen ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) showed an increasing tendency in all treatments from morning feedint to 3h post feeding with the highest amount for treatment FBTMRS (from 17.85 to 32.89 mg/dL) and the lowest for the control (from 13.35 to 31.32 mg/dL) but it showed a decreasing trend from 3h to 6h post feeding with slower tendency for the treatment FBTMRS.

Results of the experimental diets on sheep nutrition indicated that, the highest DM and OM intake was obtained when the animals received TMR silage based on the fodder beet. However, the TMR corn silage showed the highest nutrients digestibility that may be due to the nutritional improvement during the silage fermentation and preservation. Improvement the nutrients digestibility of TMR corn silage is considered as an advantage when compared to the normal TMR (contained corn silage). Therefore, TMR silage based on corn forage recommended as superior treatment in this study. However, practicing and utilization of TMR silage based on the fodder beet is recommended, where the fodder beet is available.

The present research was conducted to investigate the effect of adding different levels of forage corn on the improvement of fermentation properties and aerobic stability of the aerial part of Jerusalem artichoke silage. To prepare silages, this plant was ensiled with ratios of 0, 25, 50 and 75% of forage corn in laboratory silos with four replicates. The lowest pH (3.85) and the highest concentration of lactic acid (48.5 g/ kg DM) were observed in silages containing 75% and then in silages containing 50% of forage corn. In silages containing 50% and 75% forage corn, a decrease in the concentration of butyric acid and ammonia nitrogen was associated with an increase in the population of lactic acid bacteria and a decrease in the population of mold and yeast. The highest ratio of lactic acid to acetic acid (2.2) was observed in silages containing 75% of forage corn. Silages containing 50 and 75% of forage corn had the highest crude protein and soluble carbohydrates. The highest aerobic stability in silages containing 50% of forage corn (584 h) was associated with no growth of mold in these silages. The results of the present research showed that the use of 50% forage corn during the preparation of aerial part silage of Jerusalem artichoke improved fermentation. Also, mixing these two forages with different levels of used forage corn improved the aerobic stability of silages and the highest aerobic stability was observed in the silage resulting from a 50:50 mixture of these two forages.

The use of radiation has become a way of life in most countries around the globe. The utilization of nuclear techniques in the area of agriculture, defense, and power generation has increased over the last few decades. Radiation technology is widely used to produce changes in product characteristics leading to the development of new products. Radiation-mediated morphological, structural and/or functional changes in a plant are governed by the intensity and duration of the gamma irradiation. Gamma irradiation was found to increase plant productivity. Gamma rays represent one of the important physical agents used to improve the characters and productivity of many plants (e.g. rice, maize, bean, cowpea, and potato). Gamma irradiation also has been found to be very useful for both sterilization and for the preservation of food and cereal grain in nutrition and agriculture. Gamma rays were also found to cause modulation in protein patterns by inducing the appearance and/or disappearance of some protein bands. It has been shown that large DNA strands were broken into small strands at low irradiation doses but small and large DNA strands were broken at higher irradiation doses. Also it has reported that germination of seeds can be influenced in both positive and negative directions by gamma radiation exposure as a result of mutation inductions depending on cellular abnormalities or stimulatory modifications triggered by radiation doses. In several studies, lethal and stimulatory effects of gamma irradiation on germination percentage, emergence, and survival of seedlings of different plant species have been reported. The present work has been intended to investigate the response of corn seeds exposed to gamma irradiation (25 Gys) in terms of the nutritional performance of its forage and silage compared with control non-exposed seeds. Corn seeds were obtained from the Vegetable Crop Seed Production and Technology section, Ghezlagh Farm, College of Abouraihan, university of Tehran, Iran. Four kg corn seeds (single cross 704) were divided into 2 groups. The first group did not have any treatment to serve as a control, while the second group was irradiated with Gamma rays (25 Gray) using Gamma cell – cobalt- 60 instruction and with the rate of 0.55 Gr/ min at the Nuclear Agricultural Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, Karaj, Iran. Field experiments were conducted during the summer seasons at Ghezlal farm Research Station located at the southwest of Tehran province, Varamin, to study the effect of gamma irradiation (25 Gray) on the performance of corn forage and silage. After irradiation, control and irradiated seeds were cultivated in 2000 m2. Agricultural practices such as: irrigation, weeding, fertilization, and pest control were carried out as recommended. Samples of corn plants were obtained at the late stage of growth and amounts of proline, soluble carbohydrate, and protein were determined. Performance chrematistics of experimental groups were also recorded. After harvesting, the corn forage was chopped and transferred to an experimental silo made of polyethylene pipe. DM, ash, CP, NDF, and ADF of experimental silages were determined according to standards procedures. The pH of silage also was determined using pH meters. For the determination of gas production parameters, 200 mg of dry samples were incubated at gas production environment and the amount and rate of gas production were recorded at a different time of incubation (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h). Using gas production parameters, the amount of OM digestibility, ME, NEL, and SCFA were also determined. Data were analyzed using the t-student test of SAS software (ver. 9.1). Duncan’s multiple range test was used to detect statistical significance between treatments using a significance level of 0.05. Irradiation of corn seeds increased corn performance (wet and dry weight of seed and forage), amount of soluble carbohydrates and protein, and concentration of proline (P<0.05). The exposed treatment showed the highest increase in seed weight, seed number, and weight of 1000 seeds as compared to the control (P < 0.05). Amount of gas, and b and c fractions of gas production, the concentration of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), metabolizable (ME) and net energy for lactation (NEL), and organic matter digestibility (OMD) were higher for treated corn forage and silage compared to the control group (P < 0.05). Also, exposed corn silage had a lower level of pH and higher amount of dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) than control (P < 0.05). The results of this study show that exposing irradiation of corn seeds to 25 gray gamma-ray improves fermentation parameters and nutrition values of corn forage and silage.

This study was conducted to investigate the chemical composition and nutritional characteristics of corn seeds exposed to gamma ray and the effect of its silage feeding on performance of finishing male Zandi lambs. First, the germination characteristics of control and irradiated corn seeds with different dosages of gamma ray (25, 50, 100, 150 and 200 gray) were measured. After determining the appropriate dose, corn seeds were irradiated with gamma ray at 25 gray and cultivated in the field. At the end of the growth period, corn forage was harvested and ensiled in experimental and farm silages. In addition, the effects of feeding experimental silages on performance and blood metabolites of finishing Zandi lambs were determined. Experimental treatments were: 1) control; diet containing 20% non-irradiated corn silage and 2) diet containing 20% corn silage irradiated with 25 gray gamma ray. Irradiation with 25 dosage of gamma gray increased secondary roots, plumule and rootlet number in greenhouse condition as compared to other irradiation dosages (P<0.01). Irradiated corn had higher levels of soluble carbohydrates, soluble protein and chlorophyll content in the field condition compared to control group (P<0.01). Silage obtained from irradiated corn had higher crude protein content and lower pH compared to control (P<0.05). Feeding irradiated corn silage increased final body weight and average daily gain and improved feed conversion ratio of fattening lambs (P<0.05). Based on the results of the present study, irradiation of corn seeds with gamma ray improves corn silage quality and performance of fattening lambs.

Ensiling total mixed ration can be used as a sustainable alternative to efficiently of feed management, improves digestibility and increase performance of ruminants. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of using total mixed ration silage based fodder corn on the growth performance of fattening Zell lambs.

Fourteen Zell male lambs (19.74± 2.07 kg BW) were randomly allocated to one of two experimental diets similar in nutrient contents. Experimental diets included control diet based on alfalfa and wheat straw (CD) plus concentrate and total mixed ration silage based on fodder corn plus concentrate (TMRS). The animals were fed three times daily in three equal portions over a 12-weeks assay following a 2-weeks adaptation period. Lambs were weighed immediately before the morning feeding at the beginning and at 3-weeks intervals. At the end of fattening period, the lambs were housed in individual cages to evaluate nutrient digestibility of the experimental diets. Furthermore, blood samples were collected from the Jugular veins of the lambs for measuring of glucose, total protein, albumin and liver enzymes such as alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST).

Average feed intake was not affected by the experimental diets, but final body weight, total body weight gain, average daily gain were greater but the feed conversion ratio (feed/gain) was lower in lambs fed TMRS diet than those received CD diet (P<0.05). Digestibility of dry matter, organic matter and neutral detergent fiber were higher (p<0.02) in CD diet that that of the TMRS diet. There was no difference in plasma concentration of albumin, total protein, glucose, ALT and AST between the experimental groups, and all of those parameters were within the normal range for healthy sheep.

It was concluded that ensiling total mixed ration based on the fodder corn was associated with an optimal fermentation and using its in fattening Zell lamb diets caused an increase in final body weight and daily gain, and improved feed conversion ratio. Therefore, ensiling total mixed ration could an appropriate feeing management to improve performance of fattening lambs.