This paper highlights the importance of long-term field experiments in grassland and offers conclusive and strong arguments for their preservation and continuation. Examples of Austrian and selected European long-term experiments (LTEs) exhibit quite diverse research activities while applying modern analytics and survey methods. Increasing attractiveness for interdisciplinary work in both basic and applied research is proven. It is concluded that not all long-term experiments still existing will be maintained in their original form and managed according to the underlying experimental concept because of scarce human and financial resources. Therefore, both minimum requirements and optimal constellations for the future use of such ‘listening places’ are defined. Finally, the intention of this paper also is to motivate the responsible persons and research institutions to further explore and protect these highly valuable resources.

Press cake silage (PCS) is a by-product of biorefining, which can substitute unprocessed grass or grass-clover silage (GCS) in ruminant feeding. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of including re-ensiled PCS from GCS in dairy cows' diet on feed intake, milk production and composition, feed conversion, apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) as well as feed sorting and rumination behaviour compared to a control ration. Three total mixed rations (TMR) were tested in this experiment differing in PCS and GCS proportion in forage: 0% PCS and 50% GCS (CON), 25% PCS and 25% GCS (PCS25) and 50% PCS and 0% GCS (PCS50). The study was designed as a cross-over trial with six Holstein Friesian and nine Simmental cows (average 624 ± 68 kg body weight and 60 ± 20 days in milk at the start of the trial). The experiment consisted of three experimental runs, each lasting for 35 days with a 14 days adaptation phase and a 21 days measurement period. Diets were fed as TMR containing 37% grass silage, 26% concentrates and differing proportions of PCS or GCS depending on experimental group (37% GCS in CON, 18.5% PCS and 18.5% GCS in PCS25, 37% PCS in PCS50). Dry matter intake of dairy cows was higher in the PCS25 compared to the PCS50 group with both groups being not different from the CON treatment. Energy-corrected milk (ECM) production was lowest in the PCS50 group but did not differ significantly between treatments. Milk composition was also similar in all three treatments, except for milk urea content, which was lower in the PCS50 group. Moreover, ATTD of crude protein and ruminal nitrogen balance as well as phosphorus intake and the phosphorus effort for production of 1 kg ECM decreased with rising PCS inclusion in the diet. In contrast, no differences between treatments were found for dry matter, crude protein and energy effort for ECM production as well as for feed sorting and rumination behaviour. In conclusion, replacing GCS by re-ensiled PCS in TMR-diets did not affect ECM production and feed conversion of dairy cows while increasing the utilisation of crude protein and phosphorus. Therefore, re-ensiled PCS can substitute GCS in dairy cows' TMR-diets. However, the long-term effects of decreased phosphorus intake and ATTD of crude protein in cows fed PCS-rich diets should be examined in future studies.

In this eight-year grassland field trial, we compared the fertilization effects of biomass ashes (BMAs) and carbonated lime (CaCO3) in combined application with cattle slurry (CS). Our study focused on plant coverage, forage yield, and quality, as well as soil physicochemical and microbiological properties. The fertilization strategies included CS mixed with BMA or CaCO3 applied three times a year and a separate annual application of ash or CaCO3, independent of CS. Samplings were performed in 2010, 2014, and 2018. Despite an absence of observable effects on soil, microbial properties, and forage quality, CS application, with or without BMA/CaCO3, resulted in higher forage yields compared to the unfertilized control and plots receiving only ash or CaCO3. Forage properties remained consistent across treatments. However, the combined application of CS with both ash and CaCO3 led to a reduction in volatile organic compounds, total carbon, total nitrogen, nitrate, and electrical conductivity in the soil from 2010 to 2018. Additionally, the relative abundance of specific microbial families (Nitrosomonadaceae, Acidothermaceae, Bacillaceae, and Peptostreptococcaceae) varied based on whether soils received a single amendment or a combination thereof. Our findings suggest that BMA is a valuable substitute for traditional liming agents, regardless of the application mode.

Biorefining is seen as a potential method to produce protein-rich feed for monogastric farm animals from grassland, which does not compete with human nutrition. Therefore, a new biorefinery facility was constructed and tested in this experiment by using silages from grass clover mixture and red clover. After biorefining, press juice was stored for further use while press cake was re-ensiled. Samples from silage, press juice, fresh press cake and re-ensiled press cake were analysed for nutrient composition, fermentation parameters, amino acids (AA) and biogenic amines (BA) concentrations. Furthermore, digestibility of silage and re-ensiled press cake was tested in wethers. We found that press juice contained about 205 g crude protein (CP), more than 180 g crude ash and more than 130 g volatile organic compounds (VOC, all values per kg dry matter [DM]). Furthermore, press juice had an unfavourable AA ratio for use as a monogastric feed (methionine and cysteine were reduced). Forage type hardly affected nutritive value of press juice. Re-ensiling of press cake was successful as a sufficient decrease of pH and VOC concentration was observed. Press cake had 26-36 g/kg DM lower CP content and 0.77-1.12 MJ/kg DM lower metabolisable energy content than silage with greater differences in red clover than in grass clover mixture. Press juice can be used as feed in monogastric animals, but its use is limited due to its low CP content and unfavourable AA profile. Press cake could be an appropriate feed for ruminants, especially dry cows or heifers.

Droughts lead to reduced biomass production and unfavourable nutrient composition in grassland. As an alleviation, yet unexploited strategy, mixed ensiling of grass with agro-industrial by-products may improve the ensilability and nutritive value of drought-impaired grassland. This study investigated first whether mixed ensiling of drought-impaired grass with either sugar beet pulp (SBP), wheat gluten feed (WGF) or brewers' grains (BG) has a beneficial impact on chemical composition, fermentation characteristics, in vitro gas production (GP) and physically effective neutral detergent fibre (peNDF) of silages. Secondly, it was tested whether the application of anaerobic fungi culture supernatant (AF), mixed ruminal fluid (RF) or lactic acid bacteria (LAB) provides further advantages. Additionally, the microbial community composition was evaluated in selected silages. All silages showed satisfying conservation characteristics with high lactic acid levels and low dry matter losses, and peNDF values typically found for conserved forages. Mixed ensiling with BG substantially increased the crude protein concentration, whereas SBP increased the total degradability and WGF enhanced both. The further addition of fresh AF resulted in the overall highest lactic acid levels, especially in SBP-based silages, but without changes in in vitro GP. The in vitro GP was higher with RF, particularly in mixed silages, suggesting an improved degradability. The LAB-treated silages showed lower pH compared to controls, but had no impact on in vitro GP kinetics. Concluding, mixed ensiling holds potential to produce high-quality silages from drought-impaired grassland. The further addition of silage additives can be useful for certain substrates, but appeared not mandatory.

The occurrence of the Western corn rootworm and increasing frequency of summer droughts have reduced forage maize yields and quality in Central Europe in recent years. Therefore, sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) has been increasingly used as alternative forage in ruminant feeding, although information on the nutritive value of whole crop sorghum silage (WCSS) under Central European climate conditions is scarce. This research project aimed to study differences between sorghum varieties and harvest dates regarding dry matter (DM) yield, chemical composition of fresh panicle, fresh stover, fresh whole plant and WCSS as well as whole tract digestibility and energy content of WCSS. For this purpose, six sorghum varieties, classified by their predominant use (biomass, silage, grain), were cultivated and harvested at three maturity stages (late milk stage, dough stage, full maturity). Furthermore, WCSS quality was compared with feed value of fresh and ensiled forage maize. Dry matter yield was higher (p < 0.05) in biomass sorghum (24.9 t/ha) compared to other sorghum varieties (12.4 to 16.7 t/ha). However, panicle proportion was lowest in biomass sorghum (10.5%), highest in grain sorghum (59.1%) and intermediate in silage sorghum. Fibre content declined and starch content increased with rising panicle proportion in fresh panicle, fresh whole plant and WCSS. Therefore, whole tract organic matter digestibility (66.8%) and metabolisable energy (ME) content (9.49 MJ/kg DM) were highest in grain sorghum silage. Especially low ME content was found in the biomass sorghum silage (7.43 MJ/kg DM). Dry matter yield of sorghum increased between late milk and dough stage of maturity, while it remained constant afterwards. Furthermore, ME content of WCSS rose tendentially (0.05 p < 0.10) between late milk and dough stage of maturity and dropped again between dough stage and full maturity. Highest nutritive value of WCSS is achieved if grain sorghum varieties are used and both nutritive value and DM yield are optimised if harvest is carried out at dough stage of maturity. However, compared to forage maize, grain sorghum varieties have disadvantages both in DM yield and in nutritive value under common Central European climate conditions.

Summary Lolium perenne L. (Lp) is one of the most important and valuable forage plants in grasslands and an indispensable component of seed mixtures for meadows, pastures, ley farming, and re-seeding measures. A set of 39 different cultivars of Lp assigned to early, intermediate, and late maturing types were harvested and analyzed in weekly intervals during the first growth at AREC Raumberg-Gumpenstein, Austria. Significant differences between the heading groups were found with a time lag of 6 days for crude protein content and of up to 11 days for digestibility of organic matter and energy concentration. The early heading cultivars significantly differed from the other two groups, which performed comparably and were more resilient in terms of quality aspects for a longer time. Within all three heading groups, a strong variation could be noticed, leading to some unexpected overlapping. Our results indicate that the current assignment of Lp cultivars to the heading groups is imprecise and should be improved by advanced recordings and by analyses during the time of the official variety testing period. This may lead to a more sufficient selection of Lp cultivars for grassland mixtures, and therefore, increase the quality of home-grown forage.

Summary Two in vitro methods were tested to establish their potential to predict the metabolizable energy (ME) content of forage legumes: the Tilley and Terry (TT) method and the pepsin-cellulase method (CM). Different samples of white clover (Trifolium repens L.), red clover (Trifolium pratense L.), kura clover (Trifolium ambiguum M. Bieb.), lucerne (Medicago sativa L.), and birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus L.) were derived from field trials with several defoliation systems at two sites. The CM was more precise due to its repeatability within and between analysis runs, but eventually overestimated the ME contents of the samples, as it was shown for the standard samples with known in vivo digestibility. ME contents were found to be consistently higher based on CM, with a difference of up to 1.5 MJ ME/kg DM compared to TT. Although white clover was, in general, the species with the highest ME content, the influence of legume species over all cuts and defoliation systems was inconsistent. Such observations may influence the method of choice for ME estimation for large datasets.

BACKGROUND In this study the inhibition of hop beta acids on the growth of clostridia in soil-contaminated pressed sugar beet pulp silages was investigated. Hop beta acids are natural substances which display their effect at low concentrations. Fresh pressed beet pulp material was mixed with soil to artificially contaminate it with clostridia. Laboratory silos were filled with the substrate, stored at 25 °C and opened for sampling at 0, 2, 8, 15, 30, 60, and 90 days. The impact on clostridial growth during silage fermentation was monitored by determination of the pH value and dry matter content, as well as chemical analysis of the fermentation products. Throughout the experiments, the effect of a commercial silage inoculant based on lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and hop-resistant LAB were examined with and without the combination of plant-based antimicrobials. RESULTS Results indicate that in contaminated silage samples without any additives high butyric acid contents occurred due to clostridial growth. This spoilage could not be suppressed by the application of LAB, whereas the combined application of LAB and hop beta acids significantly improved silage quality, which was reflected by favourable organic acid composition (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION The experimental data indicate that the application of hop beta acids improves the preservation effect of LAB in suppressing clostridial growth in silages and thus demonstrates some potential for the combined use of plant-based antimicrobials and LAB.

Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird die Eingangsphase der Implementierung eines Qualitätsmanagement (QM)-Modells der kontinuierlichen Verbesserung nach dem PDCA-Zyklus am Beispiel des Notarzt (NA)-Stützpunktes Innsbruck-Stadt und des Österreichischen Roten Kreuzes Freiwillige Rettung Innsbruck dargestellt. Mithilfe von zwei Fragebögen zur Mitarbeiterzufriedenheit werden Problemfelder aufgezeigt und Optimierungsmaßnahmen vorgeschlagen. Anhand der Ergebnisse wird diskutiert, inwieweit die beiden Organisationen die Voraussetzungen für ein QM-Modell zur kontinuierlichen Verbesserung erfüllen.

In this article the first implementation step of a quality management (QM) model for continuous quality improvement (CQI), in particular the PDCA cycle, by using the example of the Medical University Innsbruck emergency department and the Austrian Red Cross, Freiwillige Rettung (Voluntary Rescue) Innsbruck (FRI) is described. Using two questionnaires concerning personnel satisfaction main problem areas were identified and improvements suggested. The results serve to discuss whether the two organizations involved fulfil the necessary conditions for the QM approach of CQI.