An intersection of ruminant production and forage production

Abstract

The concept of intersection was introduced into relationships between forage production and ruminant production by premising the equality in the amount between forage yield (kg/a) and cumulative forage intake (kg/head). Some relationships were given through the mutual transformation of two units (kg/a↔kg/head) at the intersection, (i) There was a relation of ruminant growth period (dR) to forage yield (kg/a) through daily intake (kg/a/dR), and forage growth period (dF) was related to cumulative forage intake (kg/head) through the unit (kg/head/dF) that was shown for both forage growth rate and rough estimate of assimilation rate, (ii) The animal (head) was related to the field (a) through the unit (a/head) shown for each of feed efficiency, forage digestibility and the ratio of the amount of animal excreta to forage yield, this ratio showed the return of excreta to the field, (iii) The intersection led to either of forage and ruminant production analyses, (iv) When entering the ruminant production analysis from the forage production analysis, there was a pair appearance of feed efficiency and feed conversion, followed by its pair disappearance. The present study suggested field-forage-ruminant relationships.