ANS 6452 – Principles of Forage Evaluation -  3 credits

(Section No. 0205)

 

Instructor: Dr Adegbola T Adesogan, Animal Sciences Department, Building 459.        

Room 210-D.  Tel. (352) 392-7527   Email.  adesogan@ufl.edu

 

Office hours: By email appointment; open door policy for urgent enquiries.

 

Department Chairperson:  G. Dahl, 100 Animal Science Bldg.499, 392-1981

 

Prerequisites:  ANS 5446 and AGR 4231, or equivalent

 

Objectives: 

  1. To provide a fundamental understanding of the definitions, determinants, and indices of
    forage quality, and its measurement and prediction.
     
  2. To discuss the interactions between forage quality, forage quantity, supplemental feed, and
    animal potential, as a basis for conducting research in forage quality evaluation
    and utilization.

 

Academic Honesty

The University of Florida requires all members of its community to be honest in all

endeavors. Cheating, plagiarism, and other acts diminish the process of learning. When

students enroll at UF they commit themselves to honesty and integrity. Your instructor

fully expects you to adhere to the academic honesty guidelines you signed when you

were admitted to UF.  As a result of completing the registration form at the University of Florida,
every student has signed the following statement:

“I understand the University of Florida expects it students to be honest in all their

academic work. I agree to adhere to this commitment to academic honesty and

understand that my failure to comply with this commitment may result in disciplinary

action up to and including expulsion from the University.Furthermore, on work

submitted for credit by UF students, the following pledge is either required or implied:

On my honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid in doing this

assignment.

It is to be assumed all work will be completed independently unless the assignment is

defined as group project, in writing by the professor.  This policy will be vigorously upheld at all times in this course.

 

Software Use:

All faculty, staff, and students of the University are required and expected to obey the

laws and legal agreements governing software use. Failure to do so can lead to monetary

damages and/or criminal penalties for the individual violator. Because such violations

are also against University policies and rules, disciplinary action will be taken as

appropriate.

 


Campus Helping Resources

Students experiencing crisis or personal problems that interfere with their general wellbeing

are encouraged to utilize the university’s counseling resources. Both the

Counseling Center and Student Mental Health provide confidential counseling services at

no cost for currently enrolled students. Resources are available on campus for students

having personal or lacking clear career and academic goals, which interfere with their

academic performance. The Counseling Center is located at 301 Peabody Hall (next to

Criser Hall). Student Mental Health is located on the second floor of the Student Health

Services in the Infirmary.

1. University Counseling Center, 301 Peabody Hall, 392-1575; personal and career counseling:
www.counsel.ufl.edu

2. Student Mental Health, Student Health Care Center, 392-1171, personal counseling:
www.hsc.ufl.edu/shcc/smhs.htm

3. Sexual Assault Recovery Services (SARS), Student Health Care Center,

392-1161, sexual assault counseling; and

4. Career Resource Center, Reitz Union, 392-1601, career development

Assistance and counseling.

 

Students with Disabilities Act

The Dean of Students Office coordinates the needed accommodations of students with disabilities. This includes the registration of disabilities, academic accommodations within the classroom,
accessing special adaptive computer equipment, providing interpretation services, and mediating
faculty-student disability related issues.

Dean of Students Office, 202 Peabody Hall, 392-7066, www.dso.ufl.edu.

 

Course Website

The course website is at http://www.animal.ufl.edu/ans6452.  You can log into the website with your gatorlink username and password. You will find copies of the course outline, syllabus, lectures,
debate guidelines, past exams and important links on the website.

 

Course Format
Class meets Monday & Wednesday, 7th Period (1.55 – 2.45 pm) in Room 151 of the Animal Science Building. 

 

Attendance policy:

All students are strongly encouraged to attend all lectures as attendance will be taken intermittently
during
the semester.  You need to give prior notice to the instructor if you will be absent from
lectures, laboratories or exams.  The decision to move students whose final grade is one point
short of the next grade will be largely based on attendance and participation in lectures.

 

 

Grading scale: 

                   A = 90‑100%             B+ = 85‑89%                     B = 80‑84%               C+ = 75‑79%

                   C = 70‑74%               D+ = 65‑69%                     D = 60‑64%               E  < 60%

 

The final grade will be computed as follows:

                    Exercise 1                        50

Exercise 2                        50

Mid Semester Exam        100

Debate                             100

Final Exam                      100

Total                               400

 

Late assignments and exam make up policy:  Students will loose five percentage points for each
day (including weekends) after the deadline for submission of an assignment expires unless prior
permission for late submission was granted.  Students will be allowed to take make up exams for fullmarks, only when prior approval was given for absence from the originally scheduled exam /
assignment.

 

REFERENCES 
Barnes R.F.,  Nelson C.J., Moore, K.J. and Collins, M., 2007.  Forages, Volume II.  The Science of Grassland  Agriculture 6th Edition. Blackwell Publishing.  SB193. F65 2007

 

Givens, D.I., Owen, E., Axford, R.F.E. and Omed, H.M.,  2000.  Forage Evaluation in Ruminant Nutrition. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK. SF95 .F6725

 

t'Mannetje, L. and Jones, R.M.,  2000. Field and Laboratory Methods for Grassland and Animal
Production Research,  CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK.  SB199 .F44

Buxton, D.R., Muck, R.E. and Harrison, J. H., 2003.  Silage Science and Technology.  Agronomy, 42. American Society of  Agronomy Inc, Crop Science Society of America, Inc., Soil Science Society of America, Inc.  Madison, Wisconsin, USA.  SB195 .S56 2003

D'Mello, J.P.F.,  2000. Farm animal metabolism and nutrition, CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK,438 pp.  SF95 .F32 2000 

Fahey, G.C., Jr. (ed.) 1994. Forage quality, evaluation and utilization. Amer. Soc. Agronomy,
Madison, WI.
  SF94.6 .N37  

Forbes, J.M. 1995. Voluntary food intake and diet selection in farm animals. CAB Int., Oxon, UK.
SF95 .F674  ; SF95 .F674

Minson, D.J. 1990. Forage in ruminant nutrition,  Academic Press, San Diego SF95 .M6585

Leaver, J.D.,  1982. Herbage intake handbook,  British Grassland Society, Reading, UK.  SF95 .H471

 

Wheeler, J.L. and Mochrie, R.D., 1981. Forage evaluation : concepts and techniques. Proceedings
of a workshop on Forage evaluation and utilization, an appraisal of concepts and techniques,
Armidale, NSW; U.S./Australia Cooperative Science Program.
  SF95 .F67

 

Van Soest, P.J.,  1994. Nutritional ecology of the ruminant, Comstock Publishers, Ithaca.

 SF95 .V36 1994 ;
                                               

 

COURSE OUTLINE    

 

Class meets from 1.55 to 2.45 pm on Mon and Wed in room 156, and from 12.50 to 1.45 pm on Thursday in room 155.

 

Week

Topic

Date

1

Introduction, course objectives

Jan 7

1

The importance of forages

9

2

Representative sampling

14

2

Definition and indices of forage quality

16

3

No class – Martin Luther King day

21

3

Proximate analysis

23

4

Structural carbohydrate methods

28

4

In vivo digestibility methods

30

5

In vivo digestibility methods

Feb 4

5

In vitro digestibility methods

6

6

In situ degradability methods

11

6

Fermentation gas production methods

13

7

Estimating the rate of passage

18

7

Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy

20

8

25

8

Mid Semester Exam

27

9

Estimating microbial protein synthesis

March 3

9

Non-structural carbohydrate methods

5

10

Spring break

10

10

Spring break

12

11

Quantifying rumen function

17

11

Estimating intake

19

Debate 1

20

11

Estimating intake

24

12

Improving forage quality

26

Antinutritive factors in feeds

27

13

General problems of feed analysis

31

14

Prediction of nutritive value & accuracy versus precision

April 2

13

Debate 2

3

15

Associative effects of feeds

7

15

Associative effects of feeds

9

16

Silage fermentation and conservation

10

17

Interpreting silage analysis reports

14

18

Particular problems with silage analyses

16

Review

23

 

Reading week

24-28

 

Final Exam

May 1

 

Note:  The Final Exam is not comprehensive.  It will only cover concepts taught in the second half 

of the semester.