Forage Conservation and Ration Formulation as Trails to Improve Resource Use Efficiency in Ruminant Nutrition
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Beschreibung
Ruminants are essential in the supply of high-quality foods such as meat and milk for a growing human population. However, ruminants are also a main source of greenhouse gas and nitrogen (N) emissions into the environment. In three chapters, the contribution of forage conservation and ruminant nutrition to a more efficient and sustainable use of natural resources is discussed. A major influencing factor is reduction of losses from harvest to digestion by the animal. Chapter 1 focusses on aspects of impacting losses occurring during forage conservation and the feeding value of preserved forages by means of different treatments. Two publications describe changes in the feeding value taking place during fermentation and aerobic exposure of forages and draw conclusions how to consider them in ration for ruminants. In chapter 2, different possibilities are described how the nutrition of ruminants can help to improve the efficient use of resources. One distinct advantage of ruminants over monogastric animals is that they can utilize grazed grass, forages and co-products being unsuitable for human consumption. For maximizing intake and increasing the share of forage in ruminant rations forage quality is of foremost concern. Besides chemical composition and digestibility of nutrients also the type and composition of carbohydrate and protein sources can affect feeding behavior as they impact both the postingestive feedback as well as the motivation for feed intake. Also sensory characteristics are of special relevance in forage choice, especially for the case of fermented feedstuffs containing numerous volatile organic compounds. In this regard, two publications focus on possibilities of impacting the feed acceptance and intake behavior of ruminants and furthermore, suitable experimental designs are discussed. Nitrogen is typically not used efficiently in ruminant production systems and in chapter 3, possibilities for improvement are discussed. Decreasing dietary intake of crude protein turned out to be the most effective way. As soon as supply with essential amino acids becomes limiting, supplementing individual rumen-protected amino acids is a further promising approach, albeit with a number of constraints. Two publications use condensed tannins as secondary plant compounds in an attempt to impact rumen metabolism, nutrient digestion and productivity of dairy cows and sheep. Another publication studies the origin of the gaseous, climate-relevant nitrous oxide emitting from ruminants and discusses mitigation strategies for reducing N losses during conservation. The combination of described approaches in forage conservation as well as in ration formulation to reduce losses and to more precisely meet the requirements of ruminants offers great potential to contribute to a more efficient and sustainable use of natural resources.
Autor*in
Katrin Gerlach