Feedstuffs in Animal Nutrition Flashcards
What is AAFCO?
Association of American Feed Control Officials
What is the most expensive part of running a farm?
65-75% of input costs deal with feeds. Processing feeds increases this input cost.
What is a forage (roughage)?
A feed that contains more than 20% crude fiber and is less less than 70% TDN (total digestible nutrients)
Roughages account for around 54% of all feed for livestock in the U.S., especially for grazing animals
What are concentrates? What two categories are there?
Concentrates are less than 20% fiber.
The two categories are energy concentrates and protein concentrates.
What is a protein concentrate?
A concentrate with more than 20% crude protein (low fiber, high protein)
What is an energy concentrate?
A concentrate with less than 20% crude protein (low fiber, low protein)
What constitutes fats and oils?
They contain more than 50% lipids
What constitutes minerals?
They are less than 20% organic material
How do forages account for the majority of feed?
Pasture, rangeland (account for 36% of feed for livestock, grazing)
Harvested forages (account for 18% of feed for livestock)
- silage
- hay
- haylage
What are some types of roughages?
- Grasses
- Legumes
- Forbes (broad leaved plants like dandelions)
- Browse
- some byproducts
Discuss grasses
Grasses are a roughage typically used for grazing or making hay.
Some grasses are annuals, and need to be planted seasonally. Others are perennial, and grow indefinitely.
Some grasses include the cool season (C3) grasses and warm season (C4) grasses.
Grasses have a wide range of nutrient availability affected by:
- age of the grass
- rain
- fertilizer
- soil
- region
What are some physical characteristics of grasses?
long, narrow leaves
cylindrical stems with nodes or seeds
What’s the difference between C3 and C4 grasses?
C3 grow in cool seasons and produce more water and less CO2
C4 grasses grow in warm seasons and produce more CO2 and less water
Discuss legumes
Legumes are more upright than grasses because they tend to have more lignin, which provides rigidity.
Legumes often have woody stems and trifoliate leaves.
Legumes have more protein than grasses.
Describe the relationship between rhizobia and legumes.
Rhizobia are a bacteria that convert N2 to NH4+ for the plant to use. This ammonium is why legumes contains more crude protein than grasses.
The plant supplies energy and other nutrients to the bacteria.
Discuss the nutritive value of grasses compared to legumes.
Legumes have a greater amount of key nutrients, including calcium and protein. However, legumes also have a higher amount of lignin, which decreases digestibility.
What factors affect the nutritive values of forages?
- Maturity: quality declines as the plant matures because lignin concentration increases
- Species and cultivars: some are selected for quality or yield
- Leaf-stem ratio: leaves have more nutrient dense, non-structural carbs (mores leaves = better)
- Harvest and storage method
These factors are more variable than grains/concentrates
Discuss plant maturity and quality.
Different species and segments of the plant decline at different rates as the plant matures.
Leaves remain digestible despite increasing age.
ex. Brown mid rib, a GMO corn, has lower lignin and improved digestibility at the cost of reduced structural integrity.
Discuss how plant parts differ in nutritional quality.
Leaves have greater nutritional quality because they contain more non-structural carbs, more protein, and less structural carbs.
Stems are less nutritious because they are largely composed of vascular tissue and structural carbs.
What relationship exists between quality, yield, and plant maturity?
As plant maturity increases, plant quality decreases, but yield increases.
Discuss grains and list important energy concentrates.
Grains have greater nutrient availability than forages, and are still a popular feed for ruminants. They are also good for animals with simple stomachs that cannot handle variable forages.
Grains are often energy concentrates.
Some important energy concentrates are:
- corn
- barely
- sorgum
- wheat
- oats
- rye
Why is corn “king?”
2/3 of the corn kernel is starch. This makes it a good source of energy as it is broken down in the small intestine.
Fiber is found in the corn bran.
Fat is in the corn germ.
What are some origins of protein concentrates?
- Plants (ex. soybeans)
- NPN (non-protein nitrogen)
- animal (meals)
Why is protein and N recycling important to ruminants?
Ruminants can recycle N and the microbial population can use it to make proteins in the rumen, which can be digested in the small intestine.