All the crops mentioned have potential for conservation as a home-grown, high protein supplement or substitute for grass silage; and using new harvesting and ensiling technologies it is now possible to reliably produce high quality silage despite the low sugar content and(or) high buffering capacity of most of these crops. The use of biological inoculants on legume crops has shown benefits in terms of fermentation and nutritive value of the crops. There is potential to improve the quality of meat products by feeding high quality forage crops although further studies on the flavour and meat stability issues is warranted.
Acknowledgement
The author wishes to acknowledge data supplied by Dr. Nigel Scollan (IGER) on carcass lipid content and Dr. Mariecia Fraser (IGER) for data on grazing of legume crops.
References
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