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The effects of pelleting various diets on intake and digestibility in sheep and cattle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

J. F. D. Greenhalgh  and
G. W. Reid
J. F. D. Greenhalgh
Affiliation:
The Rowett Research Institute, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, AB2 9SB
G. W. Reid
Affiliation:
The Rowett Research Institute, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, AB2 9SB
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Summary

1. Three groups of six castrated male cattle aged 6,18 and 36 months and three corresponding groups of sheep received in turn three diets consisting of high-quality dried grass (A), low-quality grass (B) or 60% of B with 40% barley (C). For one-half of each 6-week period the grass was eaten in the long form (L) and for the other half, it was ground and pelleted (P).

2. Pelleting increased intake by 45% in sheep, from 56·8 to 82·4 g dry matter per kg W-75 per day, but only by 11% in cattle, from 81·8 to 90·7. The increase was greater for diet B (44%) than for A (19%) or C (15%), and greater for the youngest animals (38%) than for the middle-aged (17%) or oldest (20%).

3. Dry-matter digestibility was reduced by pelleting from 67·2% to 58·6% in sheep and from 69·9% to 56·9% in cattle. The reduction was greater for diets A (71·2% to 56·1%) and B (65·7% to 54·1%) than for diet C (68·7% to 63·2%).

4. A hypothesis based on the importance of particle size of digesta leaving the rumen provides a possible explanation ofthese interactions between form of roughage on the one hand, and species and age of animal or diet composition on the other.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , June 1973 , pp. 223 - 233
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1973

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References

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