Recovery of pasture seed ingested by ruminants. 1. Seed of six tropical pasture species fed to cattle, sheep and goats
1987
Simao Neto, M. | Jones, R.M. (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, St. Lucia (Australia). Div. of Tropical Crops and Pastures) | Ratcliff, D. (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, St Lucia (Australia). Div. of Mathematics and Statistics)
After 14 days on a basal diet of lucerne hay and milled wheat, penned cattle, sheep, and goats were fed a mixture of known numbers of pasture seeds (Brachiaria decumbens, Axonopus affinis, Neonotonia wightii cv. Tinaroo, Trifolium semipilosum cv. Safari, Stylosanthes hamata cv. Verano and S. scabra cv. Seca). Cattle digested less seed than did sheep and goats, but the germination characteristics of the recovered seed were similar for the different animals. The mean recovery of viable seeds ingested was 42, 10 and 19 percent for cattle, sheep and goats, and 39, 39, 23, 21, 12 and 8 percent for Safari, Tinaroo, Seca, Axonopus, Brachiaria and Verano. Most of the seeds excreted were recovered on the second and third days following feeding. For sheep and goats, the percentage recovery of ingested legume seed as emerging seedlings was similar to recovery calculated from washing out seed followed by germination testing. However, there was a lower recovery, as seedlings, for the seeds ingested by cattle. This was partially due to the larger number of hard seeds remaining in cattle faeces after the 104 week germination period.
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