Festulolium (×Festulolium Braunii) has shown good wet endurance and is expected to be introduced into abandoned paddy fields in northeastern Japan. However, for the cultivation of festulolium in abandoned paddy fields to become widespread, we must swiftly understand its nutritive value. In this paper, we created equations for estimating the total digestible nutrient (TDN) content of festulolium and compared the estimation accuracy of these equations and of the existing equations. These equations were created using 43samples (37calibration samples and 6prediction samples) whose TDN contents were measured in sheep. The accuracy of prediction was evaluated by an evaluation index (EI), which was calculated using the standard deviation of prediction error (SDP), and the average of difference (Bias). Among the equations investigated in this paper, TDN=-3.397×ADL+2.860×EE-1.552×CA+80.133 showed the highest predictive ability (EI=22.3, Bias=0.2).

Radioactive cesium (RCs) concentrations of grasses grown on a pasture in Iwate Prefecture were measured to investigate plant species difference and yearly change of RCs concentration and transfer factor of RCs from soil to plant. Although RCs concentrations of Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) and red top (Agrostis alba L.) were significantly high in 2012, those significant differences disappeared from 2013 onward. RCs concentration of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) was significantly low in 2014 and 2015. RCs concentration of vegetation and the transfer factor of RCs from soil to vegetation went down year by year. In 2014, the value of transfer factor was 0.45, which was higher than the mean value of transfer factor on mixed pasture reported by IAEA, 0.25. The regression model derived from observed data showed that the transfer factor and predicted RCs concentration in 2015 would be less than 0.25.

Two field trials were conducted to compare the chemical composition, nutritive value and production yield between high moisture shelled corn (HMSC) and ear corn silage (ECS) produced from same field. HMSC contained higher dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) and starch contents, and lower fiber contents compared to ECS. No significant difference was observed in chemical components excepting acid detergent lignin (ADL) between fresh material and silage for HMSC or ECS (Trial 1). Significant effects of variety (P9400 vs 36B08) and treatment (HMSC vs ECS) × variety interaction observed in DM and CP contents. No significant effects of variety were observed in digestibility and total digestible nutrients (TDN). TDN of HMSC were 15.3 or 13.3-14.1 points higher than that of ECS in trial 1 and 2. Dry matter yield of ECS and HMSC were 951-1261 and 773-1003kg/10a, respectively. From these results, TDN yield of HMSC was estimated 4-12% lower than that of ECS.

We conducted an experiment to determine the lactation performance and metabolic profile of dairy cows fed ear corn silage (ECS), ground high moisture shelled corn (HMSC) or ground dry shelled corn (DC). A 3×3 Latin square experiment was carried out with 6 Holstein cows averaging 32.4kg/d of milk. Cows were fed ECS, HMSC or DC with grass silage, concentrate mixture and protein supplements as mixed rations. Diet containing ECS had less total digestible nutrients compared with other two diets, although the difference was not significant. No significant effects were observed on lactation performance and selected blood constituents. The results indicate that, although any corn form can be supplied to relatively high-producing cows, the advantage is probably observed in reduction of purchased concentrate amount when HMSC or DC was fed compared with ECS.