Evaluation of microhistological analysis for determining ruminant diet botanical composition
Issue Date
1992-03-01Keywords
feces analysisassessment
feces composition
shrubs
diets
sheep
goats
cattle
botanical composition
grasses
New Mexico
forage
feeding preferences
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Alipayo, D., Valdez, R., Holechek, J. L., & Cardenas, M. (1992). Evaluation of microhistological analysis for determining ruminant diet botanical composition. Journal of Range Management, 45(2), 148-152.Publisher
Society for Range ManagementJournal
Journal of Range ManagementDOI
10.2307/4002773Additional Links
https://rangelands.org/Abstract
The accuracy of microhistological techniques for analysis of herbivore diets was evaluated with cattle, sheep, and Angora goats fed grass, forb, and shrub mixtures of known botanical compositions. Two observers performed microhistological analyses on undigested diets as offered and on feces collected. Similarity indices and chi-square tests were used to determine if differences existed among actual diets, estimated diets, and fecal samples. Botanical compositions of diets fed to all 3 animal species generally were accurately estimated by fecal analyses. In some other studies, shrubs in ruminant diets have been inaccurately estimated by the microhistological technique. However, in our study, shrubs were accurately estimated with no differences between actual and observed compositions. We attribute this to the fact that shrub materials used in our study had a high proportion of current growth relative to woody materials. Woody plant parts had lower proportions of identifiable epidermal material than leaves and young stems. In grass-forb diets, forbs sometimes were overestimated and differentiation among grasses was difficult. However, in most cases, observers could precisely estimate diets of the 3 herbivore species.Type
textArticle
Language
enISSN
0022-409Xae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.2307/4002773