Effect of concentrate supplementation on nutrient digestibility and growth of Brahman crossbred cattle fed a basal diet of grass and rice straw.

BACKGROUND: An experiment was conducted in Vietnam to test the hypothesis that total dry matter (DM) intake and liveweight (LW) gain would increase in a curvilinear manner with increasing amounts of concentrate offered. METHOD: There were five treatments: a basal diet of Guinea grass fed at 1 % of LW and rice straw fed ad libitum (T0), or this diet supplemented with concentrate at 0.6 (T1), 1.2 (T2), 1.8 (T3), or 2.4 % of LW (T4). The concentrate comprised locally available ingredients, namely cassava chips, rice bran, crushed rice grain, fishmeal, salt, and urea, mixed manually. RESULTS: Concentrate intake increased from T0 to T3, but there was no difference in concentrate intake between T3 and T4. Total feed intake increased in a curvilinear manner from 4.0 to 6.4 kg DM/d as the quantity of concentrate consumed increased. The substitution of concentrate for grass and rice straw increased with increasing consumption of concentrate and was as high as 0.49 kg DM reduction per kg of concentrate consumed. LW gain increased curvilinearly, with significant differences between T0 (0.092 kg/d), T1 (0.58 kg/d) and T2 (0.79 kg/d); but there were no significant differences in LW gain between T2, T3 (0.83 kg/d) and T4 (0.94 kg/d).With increasing amount of concentrate in the diet, the digestibilities of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, and crude fat increased, but NDF digestibility decreased. CONCLUSION: Based on these results, young Vietnamese Brahman-cross growing cattle will respond to a locally-sourced concentrate mix offered at a level of up to 1.2 % of LW.

Voicing concern: an unusual sequalae of orthognathic surgery.

Contact granuloma of the vocal cords is a recognised but unusual complication of prolonged endotracheal intubation. The authors have however encountered a case of contact granuloma associated with short-term intubation of just four hours following orthognathic surgery. Here we briefly describe the orthodontic case and orthognathic surgery. We further explain the presenting symptoms and treatment undertaken for the contact granuloma.

Influence of pasture and concentrates in the diet of grazing dairy cows on the fatty acid composition of milk.

In five short-term experiments conducted in Victoria in 1997 and 1998, grazing dairy cows were given either pasture alone or pasture supplemented with high-energy concentrates, and the fatty acid profiles of milk fat were measured. We established the effects of these feeds on some aspects of milk fat of importance for human nutrition, but we specifically focused on the hypothesis that conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) concentrations in milk fat increase as pasture intake increases, and decrease as more concentrates are fed. In agreement with previous research, feeding fresh pasture alone resulted in high concentrations (1.0-1.8 g/100 g milk fat) of CLA. When the effect of level of pasture consumption on CLA content was examined, a significant positive relationship (r2 = 0.35; P < 0.05) was obtained. When cereal grain concentrates were used to supplement pasture intake, the CLA content of milk fat generally declined (P < 0.05), except where the amount of concentrates given led to a marked reduction in total milk fat concentration. The use of cereal grain concentrates also generally resulted in significant (P < 0.05) increases in medium-chain saturated fatty acids, but always reduced the contribution of butyric acid to milk fat, from 4.5 to 3.9 g/100 g milk fat, on average.