Abstract
Forages can provide a complete diet for ruminant animals, increasing the sustainability of beef production systems worldwide while reducing competition with humans for agricultural land or grain crops. Much of the emphasis on the nutritional characteristics of forages has been on the fiber, sugars, starch, and protein they supply to the rumen, despite the fact that other less-explored constituents, i.e., neutral detergent soluble fiber (NDSF) and other non-structural or non-fiber carbohydrates (NFC) also play a key role in the nutrition of ruminants. This paper explores the less investigated potential of temperate legumes to accumulate levels of NFC comparable to corn silage or beet pulp in cool, dry environments under irrigation, and its implications for forage-based beef production systems. We conclude that genetic or managerial interventions (i.e., breeding programs, defoliation frequency) or ecological conditions (i.e., climate, elevation) that increase concentrations of NFC in legumes can enhance beef production, meat quality, and the efficiency of nitrogen utilization by ruminants while reducing environmental impacts.
Highlights
The most productive cultivated forages such as grasses, legumes, and forbs provide a complete diet for the ruminants—primarily cattle and sheep—with which they co-evolved (Grove and Rackham, 2001; Diamond, 2002)
When the nutritive value of grasses and legumes cultivated in temperate climates is compared, the concentraton of fiber is greater in grasses (e.g., 65% of dry mass) than in legumes (e.g., 50% of dry mass), while the concentration of protein is greater by a similar proportion in legumes, largely because the leaves of legumes are low in fiber and because legumes create sufficient nitrogen fertilizer for their own needs internally, in association with soil bacteria (Van Soest, 1994; Franche et al, 2009; Garg, 2009)
This paper focuses on the importance of the nutritive value of grasses and legumes for beef production systems, with emphasis on the less investigated potential of temperate legumes to accumulate significant levels of readily digestible carbohydrates in their shoots when grown under irrigation in semi-arid temperate climates
Summary
The most productive cultivated forages such as grasses, legumes, and forbs provide a complete diet for the ruminants—primarily cattle and sheep—with which they co-evolved (Grove and Rackham, 2001; Diamond, 2002). As is the case for other microbial systems, the balance of available proteins and carbohydrates in the rumen dictates the rate of microbial colonization of organic matter (Hall et al, 1999; Hall and Herejk, 2001) This is similar to soil microbial systems, where sufficient nitrogen must be present for microbes to mineralize roots or the plant litter that accumulates on the soil surface (Rigby et al, 2016), and it is important in the rumen, where forage biomass is digested by microbes that are in turn digested by the ruminant (Nocek, 1988; Archimède et al, 1997; Owens et al, 2014). This paper focuses on the importance of the nutritive value of grasses and legumes for beef production systems, with emphasis on the less investigated potential of temperate legumes to accumulate significant levels of readily digestible carbohydrates in their shoots when grown under irrigation in semi-arid temperate climates
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