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Using (13)C in cattle hair to trace back the maize level in the feeding regime—A field test

Sections from cattle hair serve as an isotopic archive—they contain information on the cattle diet from different time periods. We tested the reliability of (13)C signatures (δ(13)C) in cattle tail switch hair to retrospectively trace back the annual dietary proportion of maize of different producti...

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Autores principales: Hammes, Verena, Nüsse, Olaf, Isselstein, Johannes, Kayser, Manfred
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5705144/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29182681
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188926
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author Hammes, Verena
Nüsse, Olaf
Isselstein, Johannes
Kayser, Manfred
author_facet Hammes, Verena
Nüsse, Olaf
Isselstein, Johannes
Kayser, Manfred
author_sort Hammes, Verena
collection PubMed
description Sections from cattle hair serve as an isotopic archive—they contain information on the cattle diet from different time periods. We tested the reliability of (13)C signatures (δ(13)C) in cattle tail switch hair to retrospectively trace back the annual dietary proportion of maize of different production systems without having to sample and analyze the feed. Furthermore, we investigated if differences in dietary proportion of maize during summer and winter feeding can be detected in a single tail switch hair by sampling hair only once a year. We sampled hair and obtained information on management and annual composition of diets on 23 cattle farms in northern Germany. Farms differed in dietary proportions of maize, grass and concentrates as well as in grazing regime (year-round grazing, summer grazing, no grazing). We found that the annual mean δ(13)C values (δ(13)CY) of two hair sections that contain the isotopic information of summer and winter feeding is a robust indicator for the annual proportion of maize in cattle diet on a farm. The grazing regimes could clearly be distinguished by analyzing seasonal mean δ(13)C values (δ(13)CS). We could also demonstrate short term changes in the diet changes by means of δ(13)CS. We conclude that the method can be used in different cattle production systems to check on dietary proportions of maize for a period of one year before sampling of hair.
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spelling pubmed-57051442017-12-08 Using (13)C in cattle hair to trace back the maize level in the feeding regime—A field test Hammes, Verena Nüsse, Olaf Isselstein, Johannes Kayser, Manfred PLoS One Research Article Sections from cattle hair serve as an isotopic archive—they contain information on the cattle diet from different time periods. We tested the reliability of (13)C signatures (δ(13)C) in cattle tail switch hair to retrospectively trace back the annual dietary proportion of maize of different production systems without having to sample and analyze the feed. Furthermore, we investigated if differences in dietary proportion of maize during summer and winter feeding can be detected in a single tail switch hair by sampling hair only once a year. We sampled hair and obtained information on management and annual composition of diets on 23 cattle farms in northern Germany. Farms differed in dietary proportions of maize, grass and concentrates as well as in grazing regime (year-round grazing, summer grazing, no grazing). We found that the annual mean δ(13)C values (δ(13)CY) of two hair sections that contain the isotopic information of summer and winter feeding is a robust indicator for the annual proportion of maize in cattle diet on a farm. The grazing regimes could clearly be distinguished by analyzing seasonal mean δ(13)C values (δ(13)CS). We could also demonstrate short term changes in the diet changes by means of δ(13)CS. We conclude that the method can be used in different cattle production systems to check on dietary proportions of maize for a period of one year before sampling of hair. Public Library of Science 2017-11-28 /pmc/articles/PMC5705144/ /pubmed/29182681 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188926 Text en © 2017 Hammes et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hammes, Verena
Nüsse, Olaf
Isselstein, Johannes
Kayser, Manfred
Using (13)C in cattle hair to trace back the maize level in the feeding regime—A field test
title Using (13)C in cattle hair to trace back the maize level in the feeding regime—A field test
title_full Using (13)C in cattle hair to trace back the maize level in the feeding regime—A field test
title_fullStr Using (13)C in cattle hair to trace back the maize level in the feeding regime—A field test
title_full_unstemmed Using (13)C in cattle hair to trace back the maize level in the feeding regime—A field test
title_short Using (13)C in cattle hair to trace back the maize level in the feeding regime—A field test
title_sort using (13)c in cattle hair to trace back the maize level in the feeding regime—a field test
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5705144/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29182681
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188926
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