title: Novel use of the wild species Cephalaria joppensis for silage preparation and its nutritive value for feeding lactating dairy cows.
abstract: This study presents a novel method for use of the wild plant species Cephalaria joppensis (CJ) as agricultural forage for ruminants. Domesticated CJ tends to have higher crop mass yield per hectare than a commercial wheat variety (W) but is similar in in vitro dry matter (DM) digestibility. This study was composed of 3 experiments. Experiment 1 aimed to measure effects of ensiling CJ versus W in packed polyethylene-wrapped bales. Three types of ensiled bales were produced for each plant: 1) direct-cut CJ versus W packed solely; 2) direct-cut CJ versus W mixed as sole roughage source together with dietary ingredient and packed in bales to create CJ total mixed ration (CJ-TMR) or W-TMR; 3) CJ silage versus W silage mixed as one-third of dietary roughage source together with two-thirds sorghum (S) silage and additional dietary ingredients and packed in bales to create CJ-S-TMR or W-S-TMR. Data showed that packing and wrapping created anaerobic conditions within the 4 types of TMR bales while reducing pH (4.12 to 4.37). Dry matter loss during ensilage was higher for the 2 types of TMR containing W compared with CJ. Ensilage decreased soluble nitrate content as well as yeast and mold contamination, and the 4 types of TMR bales were characterized by a long outdoor shelf life (3 mo) and high stability under aerobic exposure. Experiment 2 aimed to measure the intake and digestibility by sheep of the 4 types of packed TMR after 90 d of ensiling. Data demonstrated higher voluntary intake of the CJ-TMR compared with the other TMR types. The CJ-TMR was characterized by higher digestibility of DM, crude protein, and neutral detergent fiber components compared with the CJ-S-TMR. Experiment 3 examined intake, digestibility, and milk production by 21 pairs of lactating cows individually fed CJ-S-TMR versus W-S-TMR. Similar intake (21.6 to 22.0 kg/d) and digestibility of DM and crude protein were observed in cows fed the 2 TMR types (68 to 69% and 66 to 68%, respectively). However, neutral detergent fiber and cellulose digestibility were slightly higher in the cows fed W-S-TMR and this was reflected in a small increase in their milk and energy-corrected milk yield (36.5 and 31.4 kg/cow per day, respectively) compared with cows fed CJ-S-TMR (35.5 and 30.4 kg/cow per day, respectively). Results demonstrate that direct-cut CJ used as is, or CJ silage can be included and ensiled in TMR bales for feeding productive ruminants as a substitute for wheat silage.
authors: Department of Ruminant Sciences, Institute of Animal Sciences, PO Box 6, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel. jmiron@agri.gov.il
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Miron
authors: Z G
authors: ZG
authors: Weinberg
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Chen
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Miron
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Raviv
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Bloch
authors: E
authors: E
authors: Yosef
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Nikbahat
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Zenou
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Daklo
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Nashef
authors: U
authors: U
authors: Kushnir
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle / Q000378:metabolism*; D004043:Dietary Fiber / Q000378:metabolism*; D004063:Digestion / Q000502:physiology; D049917:Dipsacaceae / Q000378:metabolism*; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007557:Israel; D007774:Lactation; D008892:Milk / Q000378:metabolism; D011897:Random Allocation; D012756:Sheep / Q000378:metabolism*; D012820:Silage