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Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico, Grant/Award Number: 27830; Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Analysis of institutional authors

Joy, MargalidaAuthor

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October 12, 2024
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Physical and biochemical characteristics of tropical grass and legume pastures grazed by lambs

Publicated to:Grassland Science. 71 (1): 3-13 - 2025-01-01 71(1), DOI: 10.1111/grs.12433

Authors: Hampel, Viviane da Silva; Poli, Cesar Henrique Espirito Candal; Tontini, Jalise Fabiola; Joy, Margalida; Nabinger, Carlos; Devincenzi, Thais; Rodrigues, Eliseu; Manfroi, Vitor; Fajardo, Neuza Maria

Affiliations

Ctr Invest & Tecnol Agroalimentaria Aragon, Inst Agroalimentario Aragon IA2 CITA, Zaragoza, Spain - Author
Univ Fed Rio Grande do Sul UFRGS, Inst Food Sci & Technol, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil - Author
Univ Fed Rio Grande do Sul, Dept Anim Sci, 7712 Agronomy, BR-915400000 Porto Alegre, Brazil - Author

Abstract

Large areas of tropical grass pastures are not grazed by lambs because of the difficulties in managing high growth rate swards with high selective animals. The objective of this study was to evaluate the physical and biochemical characteristics of tropical pastures offered to lambs in continuous grazing. An upright grass and a shrub legume were set out in three pasture types and grazed by lambs: (1) aruana grass monoculture (AG-Panicum maximum Jacq. cv. IZ-5), (2) pigeon pea monoculture (PP-Cajanus cajan [L.] Millsp. cv. An & atilde;o) and (3) contiguous swards (CS), half of the paddock with AG (CSAG) and half with PP (CSPP). The pastures were evaluated for structural characteristics, production, nutritional composition and antioxidant concentrations in four periods over 92 days of continuous grazing by lambs. Hand plucking samples, similar to animal diet, were collected for chemical analysis. Regarding height, the PP legume monoculture after 42 days of grazing had uncontrollable growth by the lambs, reaching 1.2 m in height. This same legume but as a CS beside AG (CSPP) was maintained at a lower and similar height throughout the experimental periods. In general, the leaf:stem ratio of the different pastures decreased over the experimental periods from 0.7 to 0.2. In most periods, the CS showed intermediary nutritional quality compared to AG and PP. The alpha-tocopherol content was similar among swards, with an average of 137.2 +/- 13.67 mg/kg of green matter (p > .05). Pigeon pea showed the highest levels of total tannin and condensed tannin at 63 and 92 days (p < .05). The use of tropical grass together with a legume provides a better physical structure of the pigeon pea for grazing lambs than when monoculture of this species.

Keywords

BehaviorCajanus cajanCattlCondensed tanninsGreen panicLipid oxidationMeat qualityOvinosPanicum maximumPigeon peaProteinSheepShrub legumeSupplementationTaninosTanninTierras de pastoreoTocopheroTocopherolXanthophyllZona tropical

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Grassland Science due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2025, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q2 (Segundo Cuartil), in the category Agronomy and Crop Science. Notably, the journal is positioned en el Cuartil Q3 for the agency WoS (JCR) in the category Agronomy.

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-05:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 5.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 5 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 0.5.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Brazil.