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Morning and evening harvest effects on animal performance

Mayland, H.F. and Shewmaker, G.E. and Burns, J.C. and Fisher, D.S. (1998) Morning and evening harvest effects on animal performance. pp. 26-30. In: Proc. California/Nevada Alfalfa Symp. USA-NV-Reno, 1998/12/03-04.

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Abstract

Plants vary diurnally in concentrations of nonstructural carbohydrates (TNC). Delaying forage
harvest until mid to late afternoon could result in increased TNC in forage. Ruminants can
differentiate between PM-harvested and AM-harvested grass and alfalfa hays and eat more PM-harvested
versus AM-harvested hay. In a related study, dairy cows ate about 10% more total
mixed ration containing 40% PM-harvested alfalfa hay versus the same ration containing AM-harvested
hay, produced more milk, and gained rather than lost body weight. Afternoon harvest
management could add $15/ton of alfalfa compared with morning harvesting.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
NWISRL Publication Number: 0978
Subjects: Animal
Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User: Dan Stieneke
Date Deposited: 20 Nov 2010 21:57
Last Modified: 17 Nov 2016 16:14
Item ID: 1089
URI: https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/1089