HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Peterson, A. D. Articles by Long, T. A. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Peterson, A. D. Articles by Long, T. A.

Relationship between Intake of Some Forage and Feeding Behavior of Sheep^1,2,3,

Pennsylvania State University^,5, University Park 16802

Abstract

The meal-eating behavior of growing sheep fed Penngift crownvetch (CV) or DuPuits alfalfa (AL) cut at late-bud (LB) or full-bloom (FB) and preserved as haylage (HL) or hay (H) was determined with 24 animals during the last 10 days of a 40-day intake and digestion trial. Each metabolism crate was equipped with a door in the manger that was connected to a micro-switch and event recorder. Numbers of meals, eating duration and dry matter intake were determined daily. Average meal size and rates of dry matter consumption were calculated. Stage of maturity and type of preservation had no significant effect on numbers of meals and forage species differed only at P<.10 (LB 11.03, FB 9.35; HL 10.98, H 9.40; CV 9.06, AL 11.22 meals per day). Meal numbers ranged from 12.1 per day for alfalfa LB, HL to 7.1 meals for crownvetch, FB, H. Meal size (g) was not affected by forage species (CV 102.7, AL 95.8) or maturity (LB 102.5, FB 96.1), but haylage fed sheep ate smaller meals (HL 91.7, H 106.7, P <.05). The greater number of meals helps explain the significantly higher dry matter intake of the alfalfa (P <.005) and late-bud forages (P <.001). The crownvetch fed sheep spent 20% more time in the feeder than the alfalfa fed sheep (325 vs. 272 min./day, P <.025), whereas maturity or preservation had no effect. The alfalfa diets were consumed at a 38% faster rate (3.95 vs. 2.86 g/min., P <.005) than the crownvetch diets, and the late-bud forages were consumed at a 31% faster rate than the full-bloom forages (3.84 vs. 2.93 g/min., P <.005). A high correlation (r = 0.834, P <.01) was found between bulk density of the forage diets and numbers of meals per day. No relationship between dry matter digestibility, digestible energy per gram or digestible energy per milliliter and numbers of meals was found. A significant (P <.01) correlation coefficient (r) of 0.914 was found between bulk density of the forage diets and rate of dry matter consumption. Conversion of dry matter consumption to volume (milliliters) per minute eliminated the differences between forage species, maturity or preservation, thus indicating that physical characteristics may be one determinant of food ingestion rate.

¹ Authorized for publication 3/2/73 as Paper No. 4402 in the journal series of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station.

² This investigation was supported, in part, by funds allocated to the Agricultural Experiment Station for Regional Research Project NE-24.

³ Part of this work was presented at the American Society of Animal Science meetings in Blacksburg, Va. (1972). J. Animal Sci., 35:167.

⁴ The authors express sincere appreciation to Professor Marvin Risius, Department of Agronomy, for making the forage available, to Mr. Steven Walker for his assistance with the behavior data and to Mr. John Weaver and Mr. John Bubb for their technical assistance.

⁵ Animal Nutrition Laboratories, Department of Animal Science.