Sunday the 25th of August I could finally say I had completed my thesis and there was no going back. What a year it has been, returning to college, meeting great people and getting the chance to travel. There is too many people to mention in my acknowledgements but off the top of my head I would like to thank Professor Charles Spillane, Dr Peter McKeown, Dr Gina Pighetti and Collin McCorkel both from University of Tennessee.
Now I must find a job !!!
Results & Conclusion
Warm season forages can provide favourable forage yields and have similar mineral/nutritional value as cool season forages. The inclusion of warm season forages into pasture can be beneficial as it can extend the grazing season without sacrificing pastures. From the data available it is fair to say while warm season forages didn’t greatly increase Ca, Mg, P and K levels, it did however remain within the same level as cool season forages. This maybe be due to the fact temperature was becoming milder and rainfall was increasing, warm season crops didn’t improve mineral content as one may have expected. Fluctuations in minerals were statistical significant difference mixture and mixture*month which could be due to environmental conditions, season, maturity or forage specie. The pastures tested had almost adequate levels of minerals for grazing ruminants.