Agriculture Commons^™

The Agronomics Of Organically Managed Legume-Grass Mixtures For Ensiled Forage Production, Allen Wilder

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Legume-grass mixtures are commonly grown on livestock farms in northern New England that feed high forage diets. Such farms typically ferment stored feed into silage that can be fed throughout the year. Many legumes and grass species are available for use in temperate climates and information on the yield, forage quality, and fermentation characteristics of various legume-grass combinations would help farmers make informed decisions about species selection and optimum management for their forage programs.

One obstacle to evaluating numerous forage treatments in agronomic research is the high variability in silage dry matter content. We hypothesized that a method of artificial …

Examination Of Bovine Rumen Fluid And Milk Fat Globule Membrane Proteome Dynamics, Mallory Cate Honan

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Proteomic technology has been increasingly incorporated into agricultural research, as characterization of proteomes can provide valuable information for potential biomarkers of health and physiological status of an animal. As dairy cattle are a dominant production animal in the USA, their biofluids such as milk, blood, urine, and rumen fluid have been examined by proteomic analysis. The research outlined herein was performed to further characterize the dynamics of specific proteomes and relate them to dairy cattle physiology.

The first experiment evaluated the diurnal dynamicity of the rumen metaproteome in Holstein dairy cattle. Rumen fluid was collected from three mid to late …

Enhancing The Content Of Bioactive Fatty Acids In Bovine Milk For Human Health Promotion And Disease Prevention, Melissa Lee Bainbridge

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Consumer awareness of the link between dietary fats and health outcomes has led to increased demand for food products enriched with bioactive fatty acids (FA). Ruminant-derived fats, such as dairy fats, contribute significantly to the American diet and contain many unique beneficial FA, such as short- and medium-chain FA, n-3 FA, conjugated linoleic acids (CLA), vaccenic acid (VA), as well as odd-and branched-chain FA (OBCFA). Increasing these FA in dairy products by altering farm management practices, such as breed, lactation stage, and nutrition, may improve human health without a change to the diet. The overarching goal of this dissertation was …

Interaction Of Stocking Density And The Feeding Environment In Lactating Holstein Dairy Cows, Mackenzie Andrew Campbell

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Stocking density serves as a sub-clinical stressor impacting natural behavior and affective state of dairy cows. However, cows rarely experience stocking density as an isolated stressor. Understanding the effects of stocking density with additional management stressors such as low-fiber diets or feed restriction is the next step in alleviating stress and improving the well-being of lactating dairy cows housed in freestall barns. The overall goal of this dissertation was to evaluate the interaction of stocking density and the feeding environment on short-term production, behavioral, ruminal fermentation, and stress responses of lactating dairy cattle.

The first two studies (Chapter 2 and …

Fibrolytic Enzymes And Silage Inoculants To Improve The Nutritive Value Of Silage, Salvador Ordaz

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Ensiling is one of the most common processes used as a conservation method for forages on farms and plays an important role in farm economics. Therefore, with the aim to improve the conservation and the nutritive value of silage, the utilization of silage additives such as fibrolytic enzymes (FE) and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) inoculants has been a common on-farm practice. FE are enzymes capable of breaking down complex polysaccharides such as cellulose and hemicellulose. The latter results in an increased substrate availability for epiphytic and inoculated LAB during silage fermentation, thus promoting a higher production of organic acids such …

Examination Of The Effects Breed And Nutrition Have On The Milk Protein Profile Produced By Lactating Dairy Cattle, Rinske Tacoma

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Milk is a highly nutritious natural product and research over the last 10 years has proven that these milk proteins not only provide a rich source of amino acids to the consumer but also contains many bioactive proteins and peptides known to exert biological activity benefitting human health. In this research, proteomic methods were first used to characterize the low abundance proteome within the skim milk fraction produced by Holstein and Jersey dairy cows maintained under the same diet, management and environmental conditions. Milk samples were collected over a seven day period from six Holstein and six Jersey dairy cows. …