The metabolisable energy (ME) requirements for maintenance and growth of entire male Bali cattle (Bos javanicus) were determined by regressing liveweight change on ME intake. Cattle were fed either a diet (DM basis) of 52.5% urea-treated rice straw plus 47.5% fresh leucaena forage (Expt 1), or fresh leucaena forage alone (Expt 2). In each experiment, liveweight change and feed intake were measured over 4 weeks, after a 1-week introductory period, and feed constituent digestibilities were measured during the final week. In Expt 1, 10 bulls between 1.5 and 3 years of age and weighing 123.7 ± 11.79 kg (mean ± s.d.) were allocated to DM intakes estimated to provide 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, or 2.0 times the estimated ME requirement for maintenance (based on calculations made from published CSIRO equations for tropical cattle species other than B. javanicus), with either one or two bulls per treatment. In Expt 2, the bulls were given treatments estimated to provide 0.85, 1.0, 1.4, 1.8, or 2.2 times the ME requirement for maintenance, with two bulls allocated to each treatment. The measured ME requirements for maintenance were 0.42 ± 0.369 and 0.40 ± 0.153 MJ/kg LW0.75.day (coefficient ± standard error, Expts 1 and 2, respectively). The ME requirement for ‘production’ (i.e. positive liveweight change of male Bali cattle under the specific conditions of the experiment) was calculated to be 39.2 MJ/kg liveweight gain in Expt 2. The calculated efficiency of use of dietary ME for production in Expt 2, was 0.34

With the increased incidence of parasite resistance to chemical anthelmintics worldwide novel approaches to manage parasite infection, such as medicinal plants and their extracts, are being investigated by the scientific community. The current study tested the effect of three rates of garlic (0.9, 1.8 and 3.6%) in a pelleted ration on Haemonchus contortus in sheep. Thirty-nine Merino wether lambs aged 6 months were divided into five treatment groups, including three garlic dose rates and two control groups that received no garlic. All animals were infected with 4000 L3 H. contortus larvae 3 weeks after allocation to treatments. A positive control group was drenched with abamectin 28 days after infection. The synthetic drench was effective in controlling the parasites, but there was no reduction in either worm egg counts (WEC) or total worm count due to the garlic. The 3.6% garlic treatment had significantly lower (P < 0.05) liveweight, feed intake, body condition score and feed conversion ratio than any of the other treatment groups, suggesting that this level of garlic had a low level of anti-nutritional properties. There was an interaction between faecal WEC and voluntary feed intake over time, with the animals with higher voluntary feed intake having lower WEC over time.

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