The Nutritive Value Index Has used to determine the effect of stage of maturity on the feeding value of Timothy hay when fed to sheep. The Nutritive Value Index was found to be highly significantly correlated with forage protein content and with the energy available for productive purposes. A significant decline in the feeding value of Timothy hay was observed with advances in stage of maturity. The close relationship between the Nutritive Value Index and the digestibility of cellulose in vitro indicated the usefulness of the latter procedure in predicting the feeding value of forages.

In Canada for at least four months of the year, livestock, particularly ruminants, are often without protection from below-freezing temperatures. Under these conditions, the animals are frequently obliged to satisfy their total daily free water requirements in one or two drinking sessions with water at temperatures near freezing. The daily water requirements of all animals are known to be proportional to dry matter or energy intake. As environmental temperatures decline below the comfort zone, feed consumption and consequently water requirements increase.

The substantial increase in chicken broiler production in recent years has created a demand for a steady supply of broiler chicks in order to keep pace with consumer demand for poultry meats of this kind. Meat-type pullets therefore constitute a significant part of pullet replacement programs each year as these pullets eventually become the breeding hens that provide hatching eggs for the broiler industry. Methods of feeding have been given serious attention for many years and considerable variation in feeding systems is encountered in recommendations for the feeding of poultry.

The effects of exercise and dietary protein level on amounts of nucleic acids and total nitrogen in livers, gastrocnamius muscles, skin samples and on serum albumin-globulin ratios or young adult rats were examined. The rats in one replicate bad been exercised intermittently prior to this test while those in two other replicates had no previous exercise. It was round that exercise imposed during this test, and the lowest protein diet both resulted in reduced serum albumin-globulin ratios. Rats exercised in this test, if exercised previously, bad greatly increased DNA, RNA, and total nitrogen in their gastrocnamius muscles. This increase did not occur in rats exercised only in this test. In addition, it was found that liver DNA was increased in rats that bad previously undergone intermittent exercise. Liver nitrogen decreased as dietary protein level decreased. The amounts of' RNA and nitrogen per unit DNA in skin samples decreased following prolonged intermittent exercise, but were not affected by dietary protein level.

The ruminant animal occupies a predominant position in the field of agriculture throughout the world. The economic significance of pasture in relation to ruminant production is of paramount importance since pasture forage furnishes a natural basal feed and provides one of the cheapest sources of nutrients for these animals. The efficient utilisation of pastures and the problems associated with the assessment of their nutritive value are complicated however by the impact of certain botanical and animal inter-relationships. Within the last few decades there has been an increasing recognition of the importance of pastures and an awareness of some of the shortcomings regarding the assessment of their nutritive value.

Two experiments consisting of 120 guinea pigs each were carried out. The first experiment was conducted to determine to what extent different ratios of rutin to ascorbic acid would affect the biological value of crystalline ascorbic acid. [...]

Livestock and poultry nutritionists have long realized the importance of rations containing protein from animal sources, for rapid growth and high hatchability. Recently it has been discovered that one of the values of animal proteins lies in their supply of vitamin-like growth factors, which are found to be lacking in plant proteins. [...]

Inseparable from the concept of the usefulness or availability of a feed to an animal, is the estimate of the apparent digestibility of its nutrient components. The problem of arriving at valid apparent digestion coefficients is beset with difficulties of varying magnitude, which affect the accuracy of the resulting values. It is, therefore, of primary importance that the influence of the factors responsible for the existing variation in apparent digestion coefficients be reduced to a minimum.

The growing and feeding of roughages form the basis of a major part of Eastern Canadian agriculture. Thus the problems of the production of forages, their evaluation and their utilization by ruminants take on great importance. Moreover, the need for a meaningful measurement of the feeding value of forages is becoming increasingly pressing in the face of the growing volume of evidence of the inadequacy of present chemical and physical methods of evaluation.

Voluntary consumption, as a criterion of feeding value of two forage species was further tested by determining the “within species” effect of stage of maturity and of the physical form in which these forages were fed. Chemical composition, digestibility coefficients, voluntary intake and liveweight gains were determined. Various relationships between these factors and their relationship to forage species, stage of maturity and to the physical form in which the forage was fed, were investigated. Voluntary intake of the forages (including the effect of species, stage of maturity and physical form) was highly and significantly correlated to feeding value, whether expressed as digestible energy intake or as liveweight gain.