Continuation Education Conference
The California Chapter held a very successful continuation education conference on October 28–29, 2010. The theme was “Nutritional Regulation of the Genome.” The speakers were Kevin Harvatine, Penn State University; Eric Wong, Virginia Tech University; Juan Loor, University of Illinois; and Larry Reynolds, North Dakota State University. There was also an update on feed regulations by the California Department of Agriculture. Nearly 100 people attended the conference, and we had one of the highest levels of industry support for this conference. 

"Bang for Your Buck"
In September we held a fundraiser to raise funds for research and scholarships. The fundraiser was titled “Bang for Your Buck” and consisted of a customer appreciation dinner and a trapshoot. The activity allowed nutritionists, dairy producers, feed-ingredient suppliers, feed mills, and other animal-based businesses to interact and promote relationships beyond business. We gave businesses the opportunity to be sponsors at various donation levels that entitled them to tickets to the event for their customers along with a dinner. Prizes were awarded to individuals based on their trapshoot results and as door prizes. We collected nearly $9,000 toward the event, with approximately 75 in attendance. It was considered a success, and we look toward making this an annual event.

Respectfully submitted,
Gerald Higginbotham, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN

California ARPAS Alfalfa Hay Update 
Current alfalfa evaluation methods are, for the most part, based on 19th century methodology. To bring California alfalfa hay evaluation into the latter part of the past century, California ARPAS began a study to determine the rate, site, and extent of the degradation of selected proximate and chemical entities in alfalfa hay and relate these measurements to the NIR spectrum. The ultimate goal is to develop a transferable analytical tool based on NIR. During the 2008 growing season, approximately 200 samples of pure stand alfalfa hay were taken from throughout California and western Nevada. Eleven lots (two tons each) representing the range in selected chemical and proximate entities were purchased for use in a lamb metabolism study conducted at the USDA Dairy Forage Research Center. The diversity in our samples is greater than that found in alfalfa hays used in the study to develop current estimating equations. In vitro studies for all samples were conducted at Sapienza Analytica, LLC, and California ARPAS members are responsible for data analysis.

To date we have examined the loss of selected amino acids, ruminally and postruminally. Data indicate that α-amino nitrogen for a given alfalfa hay is not a homogeneous entity. This contrasts with current thinking that the N pool for a given feed degrades at a constant rate in the rumen. A number of models describing rumen degradation were examined, and a heterogeneous, stochastic model appeared to best describe the data compared with one or two pool deterministic models. Estimation of nonstructural carbohydrates by difference and assuming 95% plus degradation appears to overestimate ruminal dry matter disappearance. This can be taken to mean that fibrous entities, with a lower digestion coefficient, are appearing in the neutral detergent solubles. In vivo dry matter digestibility data from the USDA tend to correspond with in vitro dry matter disappearance. It is interesting to note that alfalfa hay of poorer quality, as determined by current standards, had a lower ratio of in vitro digestibility: in vivo digestibility compared with hays thought to be of better quality.

Development of methods that better describe the chemical, rather than proximate, entities present in alfalfa hay are required. Although we have not completed the work relating digestibility to spectral analysis, preliminary data indicate that NIR can be used as a tool to predict digestibility.

Respectfully submitted,
Carl Old, PhD, PAS