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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Madison, Wisconsin » U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center » Dairy Forage Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #228691
Title: Comparison of Bloat Potential Between Soft-Red and Hard-Red Winter Wheat Forages

Author
item AKINS, MATTHEW - UNIV. OF ARKANSAS
item COFFEY, KENNETH - UNIV. OF ARKANSAS
item CALDWELL, JAMES - UNIV. OF ARKANSAS
item LUSBY, KEITH - UNIV. OF ARKANSAS
item Coblentz, Wayne
item MOORE, J - UNIV. OF ARKANSAS
item KEGLEY, ELIZABETH - UNIV. OF ARKANSAS

Submitted to: Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series
Publication Type: Experiment Station
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/15/2008
Publication Date: 1/12/2008
Citation: Akins, M.W., Coffey, K.P., Caldwell, J.D., Lusby, K.S., Coblentz, W.K., Moore, J.C., Kegley, E.B. 2008. Comparison of Bloat Potential Between Soft-Red and Hard-Red Winter Wheat Forages. Research Series 563. Arkansas Animal Science Department Report 2008. (11):12-17.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Some aspects of wheat pasture bloat have been researched extensively, but few studies have evaluated the effect of wheat type on bloat. Eight Gelbvieh ' Angus ruminally cannulated heifers (1,135 ± 108 lb BW) and 48 Angus heifers (525 ± 26 lb BW) grazed 2.5-acre pastures of either hard-red or soft-red winter wheat. In Exp. 1, cattle grazed from Nov 11 to 22 and from Nov 26 to Dec 7, 2006 in a crossover design. In Exp. 2, cattle were shrunk for 20 h and then grazed from Dec 19 to 20, 2006 and from Jan 19 to 20, 2007. In both experiments, bloat was scored at 1000 and 1600 daily. The cannulated heifers grazing soft-red had a greater percentage of observed bloat (21.9 vs. 5.6%) than those grazing hard-red winter wheat (P < 0.01). In Exp. 1, rumen fluid was collected 3 times/d from the cannulated heifers during the last 2 d of each period. Consistency of the rumen fluid from cattle grazing soft-red at 1200 and 1800 was more viscous than soft-red at 0600 and hard-red at all times (wheat type × time interaction, P = 0.03). Bloat incidence was low (2.1%) for the stocker cattle, with no difference between hard-red and soft-red winter wheat. In Exp. 2, no bloat was observed. Therefore, soft-red winter wheat had a higher bloat potential than hard-red winter wheat based on results from the cannulated heifers, but no differences were observed in the frequency of bloat in stocker cattle.