Pasture sampling is a fundamental tool in forage planning, since it allows obtaining accurate and objective information about the availability and quality of forage resources. The following are some of the reasons that highlight its importance:
Evaluation of forage availability: sampling makes it possible to determine the amount of grass available in a specific area, which is essential for planning livestock management and avoiding overgrazing.
Forage quality: through sampling, plant material can be obtained to analyze nutritional characteristics of the grass, such as protein, fiber, mineral and energy content, this information is crucial to ensure adequate livestock feeding and optimize production.
Adjustment of the animal load: with a clear knowledge of the grass yield and forage quality, producers can adjust the animal load to maintain a sustainable balance between livestock and forage resources.
That is to say, grass sampling is important for foraging planning, because it allows maximizing animal yield, the use of forage and programming the conservation of forage, to maintain its nutritional quality and extend its duration, it also allows increasing a series of high-quality forages to the animals that need it most, as well as foreseeing and solving complex situations related to nutritional demand and climatic conditions.
On the other hand, regarding the quality, it should be noted that the pastures have a great variation in quality in their various stages of growth, in the different fractions of the plants, this is due to the variability in environmental conditions, genetic material and management. One of the elements that varies is the fiber and can be determined through several methods, we recommend the van soest method obtaining the neutral fiber and detergent acid.
In that sense, we can say that neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (FDA) are measures that are used to evaluate the quality of feed for ruminant livestock, they are measures of the composition of the cell wall of plants, which includes cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Therefore, fibers are an extremely important tool for evaluating the quality of finished feeds and forages intended for ruminant livestock, mainly dairy and fattening cattle. It is important to note that the neutral detergent fiber is an indicator of volume and therefore is mainly composed of hemicellulose, lignin and cellulose, while the acid detergent fiber is composed of lignin and cellulose, which is used to calculate the net energy and total digestible nutrients.
On the other hand, it can be said that neutral detergent (FDN) and acid detergent (FDA) fibers play an important role in the diet of ruminants, being frequently used to calculate the amount of fodder that animals can digest, digestible nutrients and other energy values; since the determination of fiber in diet for ruminants must consider the fractions of (FDN) and (FDA) so that when a diet is high the (FDN) the feed consumption is decreased. Similarly, when the levels of (FDA) are high in a serving, the digestibility is reduced.
Dear readers, forages represent the main source of fiber in the diets of cattle fed in pens, and have an important impact on rumen health and the productive behavior of the animal. The evaluation of the fiber by means of a chemical analysis, considers the Fiber fractions (Neutral Detergent Fiber, FDN, and Acid Detergent Fiber, FDA) present in the forage cell walls. The values resulting from the analysis are related to the consumption of dry matter and the digestibility of a forage. When a diet is high in NDF, food consumption decreases.
- Cruz, M. and Sánchez, J. (2000). Fiber in dairy cattle feed. Tropical Animal Nutrition, Vol. 6, No. 1.
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