Variation in Weed Seed Fate Fed to Different Holstein Cattle Groups.

Mehdi Dehghan Banadaky,Hamid Rahimian Mashhadi,Mohsen Beheshtian Mesgaran,Salman Rahimi,Jose Luis Gonzalez-Andujar

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0154057

Mehdi Dehghan Banadaky, Hamid Rahimian Mashhadi + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154057

Copy DOI

Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Apr 22, 2016
Citations: 8	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Tehran, University of Melbourne

Abstract

Weed seeds may maintain their viability when passing through the digestive tract of cattle and can be therefore dispersed by animal movement or the application of manure. Whether different cattle types of the same species can cause differential weed seed fate is largely unknown to us particularly under non-grazed systems similar to Holstein-Friesian dairy farming. We investigated the effect on the seed survival of four weed species in the digestive tracts of four groups of Holstein cattle: lactating cows, feedlot male calves, dry cows and growing heifers. The weed species used were Cuscuta campestris, Polygonum aviculare, Rumex crispus and Sorghum halepense. Cattle excretion was sampled for recovery and viability of seeds at four 24 hourly intervals after seed intake. The highest seed recovery occurred two days after seed intake in all cattle groups. Averaged over weed species, dry and lactating cows had the lowest and highest seed recovery of 36.4% and 74.4% respectively. No significant differences were observed in seed recovery of the four weed species when their seeds were fed to dry cows. Based on a power model fitted to seed viability data, the estimated time to 50% viability loss after seed intake, over all cattle groups ranged from 65 h (R. crispus) to 76 h (P. aviculare). Recovered seeds from the dung of feedlot male calves showed the highest mortality among cattle groups. Significant correlation was found between seed viability and ruminal pH (r = 0.86; P<0.05). This study shows that management programs aiming to minimize weed infestation caused by livestock should account for the variation amongst cattle groups in seed persistence. Our findings can be used as a guideline for evaluating the potential risk of the spread of weeds via the application of cattle manure.

Highlights

The seeds of many weed species can remain viable after passing through the digestive tract of livestock [1, 2]
The highest percent recovery was observed with lactating cows with the only exception of R. crispus (Fig 1)
Analysis of within Holstein cattle group showed that seed recovery dose not vary among weed species in the dry cows and growing heifers (Table 3)

Summary

Introduction

The seeds of many weed species can remain viable after passing through the digestive tract of livestock [1, 2]. The dungs and manures of different species of livestock have been found to contain a variable number of viable weed seeds [3, 4], which makes livestock a major agent of weed seeds dispersal in both grazing [5, 6] and non-grazing systems [7, 8]. Weed Seed Survival in Holstein Dairy Farming. Commonly applied in croplands either directly or as a compost can be contaminated with weed seeds [9, 10] and can result in further escalation of weeds in farms. Weeds are known to be a major constraint to the productivity of organic farms [13]

Methods

Results

Conclusion