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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Madison, Wisconsin » U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #217561
Title: Effects of fescue type, sampling date, and grazing by dairy replacement heifers on nitrogen partitioning and in situ disappearance kinetics of N for autumn-stockpiled tall fescue forages.

Author
item FLORES, RENE - UNIV. OF ARKANSAS
item Coblentz, Wayne
item OGDEN, ROBIN - UNIV. OF ARKANSAS
item COFFEY, KENNETH - UNIV. OF ARKANSAS
item Looper, Michael
item WEST, CHARLES - UNIV. OF ARKANSAS
item ROSENKRANS, CHARLES - UNIV. OF ARKANSAS

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/2007
Publication Date: 11/4/2007
Citation: Flores, R., Coblentz, W.K., Ogden, R., Coffey, K.P., Looper, M.L., West, C.P., Rosenkrans, C.F. 2007. Effects of fescue type, sampling date, and grazing by dairy replacement heifers on nitrogen partitioning and in situ disappearance kinetics of N for autumn-stockpiled tall fescue forages [abstract]. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts. Paper No. 77-5.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Two tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) forages, one containing a novel endophyte (HM4), and the other containing the Kentucky-31 wild-type endophyte (E+), were autumn stockpiled following late-summer clipping and fertilization with 56 kg N/ha. Beginning on 4 Dec 2003, sixteen 361 ± 56.4-kg replacement dairy heifers were assigned to one of four 1.6-ha pastures (two each of HM4 and E+). Each pasture contained four 0.4-ha paddocks, one of which was assigned to each of four sampling dates (4 Dec, 26 Dec, 15 Jan, and 4 Feb). Each date represented the day that heifers entered that specific fresh paddock for the first time. Forage also was sampled from grazed paddocks on 26 Dec, 15 Jan, and 4 Feb, and when the study was terminated (26 Feb). Fescue type x sampling date interactions did not affect total forage N, or partitioning of N within cell solubles (NDSN), or the cell wall (NDIN) for either pregrazed (P > 0.356) or postgrazed (P > 0.145) forages. Generally, fescue type had only minor effects on these N-related response variables. For pregrazed forages, N and NDSN declined in a strongly linear (P = 0.001) relationship with sampling dates. Concentrations of NDIN changed in erratic, and often higher-ordered relationships with time, but the magnitude of these responses generally was limited. Ruminal disappearance rate for pregrazed HM4 and E+ exhibited cubic (P = 0.013; range = 0.057 to 0.075/h) and quadratic (P = 0.004; range = 0.057 to 0.082/h) relationships with time, respectively. Disappearance rate for postgrazed HM4 and E+ forages only tended to be affected (P > 0.060) by sampling date (mean = 0.065/h), or was unaffected (P > 0.169; mean = 0.066/h), respectively. Effective rumen degradability exhibited various curvilinear (P < 0.015) relationships with sampling dates, but disappearance was consistently extensive, and the overall range was relatively narrow (713 to 789 g/kg N).