Forage - Science topic

Endoparasites are of two forms: intercellular parasites and intracellular parasites.

Intercellular parasites are those that inhabit the spaces of the body of the host. Examples of intercellular parasites are nematodes, tapeworms, and other helminths. Helminths live in the gut of their hosts.

Intracellular parasites are endoparasites that live within the cell of the host. Examples of intracellular parasites are the protozoan Plasmodium, the causative agent of malaria. They thrive inside the cells of their human host. Plasmodium species have different stages in their life cycle. Within the definitive host (human), the sporozoite stage of Plasmodium species occurs within the liver cells where the sporozoite gives rise to a merozoite or to a hypnozoite, which then infects the red blood cell of the host.

إنه أيضًا نهج. شكرا لتعليقك ذي الصلة.

Try EAAP:

EAAP – European Federation of Animal Science

We promote research, discussion, debate and dissemination of high quality and relevant animal science findings amongst the scientific communities, ...

Andrea Rosati

Secretary General

Ok thanks Its a good idea I did´nt think about it. Do you know some paper about the rol of silica /SiO2 in ruminants?

Dear Ryan,

Yes. it is possible. You can use the package Overlap to determine patterns in diel activity in any species. However, the increased effort of trap-nights and number of detection (of your targeted species) will produce more reliable results.

Dear colleague:

Digestibility is not a great issue, in vitro gas production or nylon bag OM and N degradability techniques are very suitable. The estimation of ME is more complicate because, among others aspects, it can be influence by the called antinutritive factors, that, as tannins, could improve or affect ME.

Depending on the scientific problem you are working to solve, it will be the choice. Any way you can check:

best regards,

Redimio

Puede revisar este tratajo de investigacion: Influencia de la temperatura y la cepa bacteriana en la calidad bromatoogica del ensilado biológico obtenido con residuos de carajito (Diplectrum conceptione) y …

Dear colleague

iNDF correlate well with feed intake wich is an important key in forage quality estimation. Please check: https://jukuri.luke.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/463517/mtt-afs-v15n3p293.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

best regards,

Redimio

interested

Hi Aleksejs Zacepins . You might find the attached paper useful. In addition, have a look at the following link - not all honey bees perform the same under difficult conditions.

my dear friend

The important point I have to tell you is that with traditional animal husbandry and animal nutrition, the climate factor has an impressive effect on the formation of forage storage methods and animal nutrition. In Iran, I saw at least 3 types in Baladeh Noor, Mazandaran, in Kalat Nader, Khorasan, and in the desert pastures of southern Khorasan. Herders use a variety of methods to store fodder. Also, some plants are used to enter the pasture, ie the beginning of the growth of a particular plant species or its flowering shows the time of presence of the animal in the pasture, which is seen in many summer pastures.

Evolutionary conflicts of interest between family members are expected to influence patterns of parental investment. In altricial birds, despite providing the same kind of parental care, patterns of investment in different offspring can differ between parents, a situation termed parentally biased favoritism. Previous explanations for parentally biased favoritism have received mixed theoretical and empirical support.

1- Follow the procedure for acid-detergent fiber using a l-2 g sample (Van Soest, 1973).

2- Filter with suction on 12.5 cm Whatman #54 paper. The paper may be weighed if an ADF value is desired. Fold paper into a cone and use 60” angle funnel and a filter cone (Fisher Cat. No. 9-760) to protect tip.

3- Wash paper with hot water until acid-free and then acetone. Place folded paper in a tared crucible. Dry at 105°C for 8 h or overnight and hot weigh if determining ADF.

4- Transfer paper residue into a Kjeldahl flask. Determine nitrogen on residue according to standard Kjeldahl procedure. Titrate distillate with 0.01 N standard acid.

5- Express ADIN as percent of total nitrogen or as N X 6.25.

Dear Inam,

Take a look at this thesis:

Thanks for the input Jacob Nabe-Nielsen ,

would a random factor of 2 for every sample really account for the problem? I could imagine this to work if the duration of the trials would not be equal.

In general, yes. Differently from the continuous stocking, in rotational stocking, when appropriate periods of occupation and rest are adopted, grazing occurs more evenly and forage is better utilized, reducing losses. In the same way, during the rest period, the pasture recovers without the interference of the animals, avoiding the death of the new shoots.

Thanks Josef

@ Reishma Sankar

Please have a look at these useful RG link and PDF attachments.

Thanks!

I think you can also go through the bomb calorimeter method.

1 sample the plant material (feed stuff) and determine the energy value using the bomb calorimeter .

2 do a digestibility trial with the animals, sample faecal matter and also subject to bomb calorimeter for energy determination.

3 the difference divided by that in the original plant material will give the digestible energy coefficient of the feed.

Hi Christina,

I remember I saw the figure you need but couldn't find it now, I recommend addressing a query to TalH@water.gov.il from the Israeli water authority (http://www.water.gov.il/Hebrew/Pages/Water-Authority-Info.aspx)

In general, all grains are imported but silag (corn and wheat) is from Israel.

Interesting

Hi,

Sorry for my English, I'm french and so not fluent (for now).

So, probabilistic sampling designs are tools that permit you to choose the place of your samples. To do this, they have a random property, that ensure you to be accurate in your results (accuracy = precision+biais) because every population unit ( every possible quadrat or transect) have the same probability to be chosen. So all the mathematics needs to use statistics (variance, sq , confidence intervals ,spatial extrapolation) are respected. this is not the case with non-probability sampling designs, where the observer place the units with convenience and not "real" random. this latter involve a bias they could under or over estimates the results. The easiest probabilistic sampling design to understand is "simple random sampling"; maybe you can read my paper available here ( http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00410/52102/52808.pdf ) , I explain advantages and disadvantages of several sampling designs. If I have an advice to you it will be to use GRTS (generalised random tesselation sampling) that will spread your samples in your boxes, keeping the random property. The easiest way to use them is by using R software. Are you ok with this software?? i could help you if not, I teached it to master classes.

I hope that it help you

best regards,

Claire

B.M.R. Is used successfooly in France. Silage need heterofermentative bactérie inoculant (high Level Of sugar linges with aérobic instabilité)

Now I understand your question better...I'm not sure if there's a solid answer out there (we may not know), but here are a few points to consider: Fish are often described as having indeterminate growth (ie rate of growth may change with age, but growth basically continues indefinitely), but my understanding is that this is not universal--some fishes do have determinate growth. Dutta (1994 Gerontology 40(2-4):97-112; not sure to what extent I trust this) states that short-lived spp from warm regions have determinate growth; long-lived spp from cooler regions have indeterminate growth. A simple (simplistic?) answer to your question may be that forage fish (ie small, schooling species) have determinate growth. We know that there are multiple endogenous and exogenous factors that regulate growth (genetics, endocrine, temperature, food availability, competition, size of environment, etc; see McDowall 1994 Ecol FW Fish doi:10.1111/j.1600-0633.1994.tb00108.x). Because forage fish depend on schooling for predator avoidance, it's likely to be adaptive that these spp grow quickly to near some max size and then spend those growth resources on reproduction instead, in part because distinctly larger individuals may be more conspicuous in a school. Sorry for the rather chaotic answer; hope this gets you started!

The rumen needs "bulk fill" for muscular stimulation. Chemical stimulation (VFA production and absorption through the rumen wall) stimulate papillae growth. In United States high fibrous feedstuffs (lower quality hay/wheat straw) can be used in rations as they are only needed for scratch (mechanical stimulation). Citations for these statements are readily available.

Hello Dear,

You can try here at the Amaranth Institute:

There is an angle that should be considered aside from all the useful suggestions above. As fed DM is different and separate from the DM% earlier described so far. The underlining fact is that both depends on attaintment of constant weights. The answers so far needed to also be structured to reflect that moisture determination must follow standard procedure and the heated material heated till the constant weight is attained, cooled in a dessicator prior to the taking of the post dried weight

Additive microbial agents add rather than replace those of natural origination. The goal would be : 1. to minimize those naturally occurring (e.g. don't kick up dirt into hay when baling); 2. to maximize distribution apply additives during accumulation before hay compacts with appropriate nozzles, pressure, and liquid volume to get good coverage; and 3. to keep hay from heating which obviously degrades quality while allowing natural microbials to multiply quickly. For a general guide to microbial products vs. organic acids and anhydrous ammonia see: http://www.midwestforage.org/pdf/209.pdf.pdf. You may actually learn more by creating just the opposite effect--that is what agents at what moisture multiply rather than decrease preservation. Refer to my 2014 patent "Systems and processes for producing biofuels from biomass" (#8,641,910) where I harvest green biomass and convert it to pipeable fluids within 24-48 hours without additional moisture added. See: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8641910.PN.&OS=PN/8641910&RS=PN/8641910

Cut worm i beleive

Conversion of Nitrogen to Protein and Amino Acids in Wild Fruits( Journal of Chemical Ecology, July 2000, Volume 26, Issue 7, pp 1749–1763)

Abstract: Protein content of plant tissues is usually estimated by multiplying total nitrogen by a conversion factor of 6.25. This technique assumes that all nitrogen originates from protein. When applied to fruit pulp, it overestimates protein content because pulp typically contains free amino acids and many nitrogenous secondary metabolites. At issue is the extent of error and, consequently, what the conversion factor between nitrogen and protein should be. We calculated a conversion factor based on pulp samples from 18 species collected in the southeastern United States. We also report a new and simple method of estimating protein and free amino acids in fruit pulp. Because previous studies have found high variation in protein and secondary metabolite content among fruit species, use of a single conversion factor for all species will generate error. In an attempt to reduce such error, we calculated protein contents and conversion factors separately for two common fruit types: lipid-rich/carbohydrate-poor and lipid-poor/carbohydrate-rich. We found no difference between these types of fruit and hence combined results in calculating an average conversion factor of 5.64. Use of an accurate conversion factor is important in estimating protein consumption by wild animals and in formulating diets of captive animals. It can also reveal whether loss of body mass in captive animals on fruit diets is due to insufficient protein consumption, secondary metabolite toxicity, or an imbalance of amino acids.

Converting nitrogen into protein--beyond 6.25 and Jones' factors.( Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2008 Feb;48(2):177-84. doi: 10.1080/10408390701279749. )

Abstract: The protein content in foodstuffs is estimated by multiplying the determined nitrogen content by a nitrogen-to-protein conversion factor. Jones' factors for a series of foodstuffs, including 6.25 as the standard, default conversion factor, have now been used for 75 years. This review provides a brief history of these factors and their underlying paradigm, with an insight into what is meant by "protein." We also review other compelling data on specific conversion factors which may have been overlooked. On the one hand, when 6.25 is used irrespective of the foodstuff, "protein" is simply nitrogen expressed using a different unit and says little about protein (s.s.). On the other hand, conversion factors specific to foodstuffs, such as those provided by Jones, are scientifically flawed. However, the nitrogen:protein ratio does vary according to the foodstuff considered. Therefore, from a scientific point of view, it would be reasonable not to apply current specific factors any longer, but they have continued to be used because scientists fear opening the Pandora's box. But because conversion factors are critical to enabling the simple conversion of determined nitrogen values into protein values and thus accurately evaluating the quantity and the quality of protein in foodstuffs, we propose a set of specific conversion factors for different foodstuffs, together with a default conversion factor (5.6). This would be far more accurate and scientifically sound, and preferable when specifically expressing nitrogen as protein. These factors are of particular importance when "protein" basically means "amino acids," this being the principal nutritional viewpoint.

Than you all for sharing me your knowledge as well as your documents

Please check with enclosed document...

Trypsin inhibitor was assayed by determining residual trypsin activity using Kakade et al. (1974) method with slight modification. Briefly, samples (1.0 g) were extracted with 0.01 N sodium hydroxide for 3 hrs in shaker and the supernatant was collected after centrifugation. To the known aliquots, 2 ml of trypsin solution was added and kept in a temperature bath at 37°C for 10 min. 5 ml of Nα-Benzoyl-L-arginine 4-nitroanilide hydrochloride (BAPNA) pre-warmed to 37°C was added. The reaction was terminated exactly 10 min later by adding 30% of acetic acid. A blank and control were also run simultaneously. The absorbance was read at 410 nm in UV-spectrophotometer. Decrease of 0.019 of ∆A indicates the presence of 1µg of trypsin inhibitor in the sample.

The estimation of phytic acid was carried out by Davis and Reid (1979) method after extracting the samples with 0.5 N nitric acid for 3 h. To the known volume of extract, 1ml ferric ammonium sulphate was added and placed in a boiling water bath for 20 min followed by 5 ml of amyl alcohol. The test tubes were shaken well, and then centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 10 min. Finally the colour intensity was read at 465 nm in UV-spectrophotometer against amyl alcohol blank exactly after 15 min of addition of ammonium thiocyanate.

Vanillin-HCl assay (Price et al. 1978) was used to determine the quantity of tannin content after extracted with absolute methanol for 20 min. The content was centrifuged at 3000 g and the supernatant was used for analysis. To the 1 ml of extracted aliquots, 5 ml of vanillin-HCl reagent was added and kept in a water bath for 20 min. The intensity of colour developed was read at 500 nm in UV-spectrophotometer against 4% hydrochloric acid as a blank. Catechin as equivalent to tannin was used as a standard with different concentration.

Saponin was extracted from the acetone extracted residual matter for 3 h using methanol in Soxhlet extraction unit (AOAC 1997). To 1 ml of methanolic extract, water and organic solvent (chloroform and methanol) was added at the ration of 1:2 and allowed to separate the layers after mixing thoroughly. The upper aqueous layer (1 ml) was kept at 110°C in hot air oven till complete evaporation of solvent. To which 0.1 ml and 0.4 ml of vannilin reagent and perchloric acid were added, respectively and kept at 70°C for 10 min. The intensity of colour developed was read at 540 nm in UV-spectrophotometer after adding 2.5 ml acetic acid. Diosgenin was used as a standard at different concentration to calculate the saponin content.

Glucosinolate was estimated by McGhee et al. (1965) method. Briefly, 10 g of samples were extracted with hot distilled water for 5 min and the contents were filtered using Buchner funnel. The residue was repeatedly washed with hot water and made up to known volume. To 25 ml of extract, 10 ml of silver nitrate, 25 ml of ethanol were added and kept in a boiling water bath for 45 min. After cooling to room temperature, it was titrated against 0.01 N potassium thiocyanate in the presence of 6 N nitric acid and ferric ammonium sulphate till the pale salmon colour was obtained.

The estimation of gum content in guar meal was carried out by Das et al. (1977) method with slight modifications. Briefly, guar meal was soaked with distilled water at the proportionate of 1:10 for overnight. The soaked material was filtered using Whatmann filter paper and the residue was rinsed for 3 to 5 times with distilled water. All the filtrates were pooled together in a container. The gum content was precipitated by the addition of 50 to 100 ml of isopropanol and the process was repeated for 5 to 10 times. Meanwhile the precipitated gum was collected completely in a pre-weighed petridish and the exact quantity of gum content was measured after drying the excess of moisture.

I bit disagree with the opinion of Dr. Palangi, methane production in the rumen usually depends on digestibility of a particular feeds. Hay normally prepared from leguminous grasses and silage prepared from non-legumes grasses. according basic rule of ruminants nutrition , if the cattle fed good quality feed staff usually emit less methane  compared high fibre based feed whether may be hay and/or silage.  So, author can go through many review works published by many researchers all over world for consultation, e.g. American Journal of Dairy Science, Journal of Animal Science, AJAS and many others like Canadian Journal of Animal sciences.  

growing lambs 

A "representative" bulk sample will not be the solution because different organic matter sources are utilized differntly by microbes depending on e.g., degradability, N-content etc...

Fractionation is one problem because you cannot be sure if all organic matter will be 13C-discriminated equally (it likely will not). Second, how will you disentangle the sources in this mulit-pool-mixing-signal in respirated CO2? 

If biosolids doesn;t coatain any heavy metal and/or other harmful elements and if it is prepared through anaerobic fermentation after separation from waste water then it may use as organic manure for forage production.  

Appreciate for all of you especially dear raju thapa

@haiffa Hassan - I think you forgot to attach the link.

High temperature requirements for sorghum lead to slower growth and lower seedling strength than corn. Since sorghum fodder is adapted to warm conditions, early season growth is also slow compared to maize. However, sorghum fodder grows quickly when temperatures rise in July and August. Sorghum will continue to grow when adjacent maize fields are exposed to paper circulation due to water stress. If moisture stress becomes severe, sorghum becomes dormant until stress is relieved. Extreme drought stress or late cold temperatures can lead to delayed ripening of the crop. In general, this late delay will not be a major problem if harvest is harvested for silage.

 Thanks very much for your favorite  Dears Dr Mr Arvind Singh  and Mr Saeed Al Rashid 

They are the true wardens of nature. They are connected while we are disconnected to their ecology for we operate under the a priori categories of property and commodity. They respect nature while we disrespect it. They are at peace while we are at war with nature. If ever there is an ecocide act, they should run it and bar our infestation.

This question can only be answered by going on a "Treasure-Hunt"--in that there are many kinds of grasslands around the planet, each containing several species of native grasses, usually perennials.

Then, within an individual grassland, each native species produces a unique amount of carbon that is sequestered annually.  I discovered this fact with the arid land species in California in the 1990s, and found a huge range between the six species of grasses in terms of the carbon in the soil that had been sequestered by each one.

Conversely, the best carbon-sequestering grasses in any native grassland can be driven to extinction, when domesticated grazing animals lower the soil carbon levels below what the grass seedlings need for germination and survival. 

You can see that happened in the area I was studying north of Reno, Nevada in the paired photos at http://www.ecoseeds.com/good.example.html.  The grazing caused the soil nutrients and organic matter to drop below the threshold needed for seedling survival.

Dear Megh

There is current trend to replace the antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) by using probiotic additives and organic acids ( for example formic, acetic, propionic, butyric, lactic, and citric acids ), these acids have antimicrobial activity, which results in modification of the gut microflora profile, and modifications to the gastrointestinal microflora which reduce pathogen attachment may have a profound effect on the structure of the intestinal wall.

For more information please, use the link:

Good Luck

Basically, I am a animal nutritionist, not plant scientist or plant breeder, though my research area also included maize crop as forage. Maize is a C4 plant and it has capacity to utilize environmental Co2 and  Carbon sequestration in the soil. Naturally,  if the soil is contaminated with heavy metals, where any type of plant or forage is grown, it would intake higher amount of heavy metal compared to normal soil. But   I have gone through literature i couldn't find such characteristics of maize, there are some floating plant like Pistia they  have the capacity to accumulate more heavy metal. So, you go through literature for further reading and you can talk to a plant breeder.         '

You can use CN analyzer to measure total carbon content. this is the most accurate method.

It couldbe used as part of the forage mixture because it is rich in protein, valuable  for ruminants and rabbits requirement  but less for poultry and pigs requiement. it has the presence of fibre and antinutritional factors

I would say it depends.

If we are talking forage as in the case of fodder for e.g. livestock, we are often also talking a product that is traded. In many developed and developing countries, several forages or fodder products are grown and traded on a market. It is a provisioning service every bit as much as e.g. raw timber.

If you talk forage in the form of primary production capture by grasses and herbs etc which form the basis for a population of e.g. deer, which are then hunted for their recreational or meat value - then it may be interpreted as a supporting service.

In the role as a supporting service one could argue that we cannot assign an independent value to it, because the value we experience is the hunting and consumption of the deer. We cannot count that value under provisioning e.g. and then count it again under support on behalf of forage and primary production

cheers / Bo.

kindly refer to the attachment 

 regards  

It is possible, but you need a good sampling of pollen source of plants that surrounding the experiment. You also need a good sample of individuals, for calculate the average proportion of pollen, and thus you will have an average closer to the reality of the different plant species and how much pollen of each species is being carried by honey bees.

Best regards

Cristian

The most important question you should ask yourself is WHY are you doing this? Are you expanding the patch model? The predator-prey OFT model? If you're adding new theory, cool! Are you just trying to show that OFT works? This has been done countless times already, in different situations. Although I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to test (nutritional density, volume, etc?) I would imagine most low-hanging fruit (a adequate metaphor with OFT) has already been picked here.

Don't show that this oft-proven theory works just to show it works. Remember, models are useful tools for exploring biology; by themselves, they are not much, but as a null model or a way to shape your expectations, they can be quite revealing. If your organisms DON'T conform to the OFT, that would be interesting. What about their biology is causing this apparent "sub-optimal" strategy? What does the fact that they conform/don't conform reveal?

The above answer is satisfactory and I would just add to it that methane emission have strong relationships with NDF concentration Which will be  varying in your experiment as you are changing the roughage concentrate ratio and make sure all microminerals are as per requirement

Clitoria ternatea is a cleistogamous plant.

In general, is unlikely that milk lactose increase or decrease in response to forage/concentrate ratio, mostly because lactose is a component closely related to water compound of milk. So, even if forage/concentrate ratio allow bacteria to produce more propionic acid, it will affect the amout of milk, far more than milk lactose.

Lucian,

I can't speak to the physiology of B ischaemum, but I come at this from the restoration and ranching perspectives.  A few points:

B ischaemum is a grass and not many animals except for livestock or other native grazers consume grass tissue as a major portion of their diet.

Domestic livestock do consume B ischaemum, just not preferentially.  Its thatch, which is of low nutritional value compared to green tissue, tends to persist much longer than that of our native species (I'm in Texas, USA).  B ischaemum grows in and amongst its own thatch, so is afforded some protection by the thatch.  The buildup of thatch also helps its competitive advantage.

Secondly, under grazing pressure it tends to grow more prostrate.  Grazing animals usually first pick off the taller green leaves which are often the native species once B ischaemum lays down. 

The ecological effect of these two strategies is that if given free choice, grazers tend to consume the native species first and utilize B ischaemum only when the natives are gone.  Livestock can be paddocked or rotated and essentially forced to graze B ischaemum and native species equally which reduces the competitive advantage of B ischeamum.  Keeping grazers grouped in tighter herds via paddocking also increases the physical animal impact (see:  Alan Savory, Holistic Resource Management) which stimulates thatch breakdown and seedling germination of herbaceous sp.

Interestingly, not all grazers avoid B ischaemum to the same degree.  Cattle are more selective in their feeding than the native bison, so they tend to prefer native species whereas bison graze natives and non-natives more equally. 

Burning, particularly during the growing season, dramatically reduces B ischaemum because (we think) it has minimal belowground carbohydrate reserves during the growing season.  Burning also removes the thatch and stimulates green regrowth which is highly preferred by grazers. 

Dear Hamid,

My suggestion is identify the main problem in silage making in your country. Generally, we have two options: homofermentative and heterofermentative bacteria. The first enhance fermentation and the second can avoid aerobic deterioration.

Best regards

Rafael Amaral

Nice work,

I agree with d-r Vieira, best wishes

Also I downloaded for you these two articles .......I know some formulating of ratio in our local Pelagonia farms, but this is for Holstein -Friesian cows, I do not know nothing for bufalloes if it is the same............ good luck

Cows approaching or at peak lactation are in dire need of more energy. Remember that milk fat synthesis requires lots of energy as well. I think what you should consider are;

1-The general nutritional value of the sprouted barley fodder, (mostly the metabolisable energy)

2-High energy supplements, such fat  

We fed HF cows at between 40 and 48 days in milk with canola oil and found that milk production was increased.

Dear Valentin, 

In order to be able to be more specific - as wrote you an email with some questions - please send me some reply to my  email Yosef.Steinberget@biu.ac.il 

Just as an illustration a attach a chart of predicted vs measured starch content in maize bran (Uganda). Prediction following the equation given above. You notice a bias (about 5%) due to the fact that NDF doesn't represent tatal fibre (some soluble fibre are not included in NDF). However the R² is good (>0.95).

On the same data you can estimate starch more simply (2 parameters) by:

Starch (%DM) = 75.68 - 3.29*ASH - 3.42*C Fibre  (R²=0.86)

Another example on a worldwide database of rice bran (342 samples)

Starch (%DM) = 75.86 - 1.07*ASH - 1.65*C Fat - 1.03* C Fibre (R²=0.91)

So, depending on the parameters you know or have access to (ash, protein etc.) you can establish prediction equations for starch on a particular material.

This paper used Serecea lespedeza for sheep

Look at this paper: Fatty acid biosynthesis in mitochondria of grasses: malonyl-coenzyme A is generated by a mitochondriallocalized acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase

Thank you Dr.Kumar & AleJandro Saborio-Montero.

Best,

Dill

Do you know the scientific name?

You can find recipes and procedures here: 

Hi Lai

I will suggest for the case of your study PGEToolbox, which is Matlab-based open-sourced software package for data analysis in population genetics (see pdf attached for more informations)!!

PGEToolbox is available free of charge at http://bioinformatics.org/pgetoolbox.

Good luck with your analyses!

Thank you, Dr. Alam. I at least now have the keyword "community nutrition" to focus my search. We'll see what's out there....

Thanks Joan! I will take a look and follow up.

Respectable prof Awohouedji Doha Yetongnon G

I would like to share with you one paper, that I m using sometimes when I need to calculate feed nutrients of lactating cows ..........if you dont have in your library, please read it carefully ........we use some Yugoslavian standards in our country Republic of Macedonia, but I dont know how to explain you the calculation :)

I hope that I will be productive for you

Best, Vesna

Dear Fabian,

Thanks for your information. Certainly, I know their project in Wageningen and read summary and details about it.

you can see more aboth in book:leo m.l.nollet,2000:food analysis by HPLC.marcel.dekker.inc.new york

If your samples still feel cold when you take them out, then they're not finished. You can also take a portion of your sample and oven dry (weigh before and after) for a quick check of moisture content. I would probably use three days, which is generally enough to dry anything unless you're completely overloading your freeze-drier.