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Updating maintenance energy requirement for the current sheep flocks and the associated effect of nutritional and animal factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2019

C. T. Yang Open the ORCID record for C. T. Yang [Opens in a new window] ,
C. M. Wang ,
Y. G. Zhao ,
T. B. Chen ,
A. Aubry ,
A. W. Gordon  and
T. Yan
C. T. Yang
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6DR, UK State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China
C. M. Wang
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6DR, UK State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China
Y. G. Zhao
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6DR, UK Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Haidian District, Beijing 100193, China
T. B. Chen
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6DR, UK Animal Breeding and Genetics Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Animal Science Academy, Chengdu 610066, China
A. Aubry
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6DR, UK
A. W. Gordon
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Newforge Lane, Belfast BT9 5PX, UK
T. Yan*
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6DR, UK
*
†E-mail: tianhai.yan@afbini.gov.uk
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Abstract

There is evidence indicating that using the current UK energy feeding system to ration the present sheep flocks may underestimate their nutrient requirements. The objective of the present study was to address this issue by developing updated maintenance energy requirements for the current sheep flocks and evaluating if these requirements were influenced by a range of dietary and animal factors. Data (n = 131) used were collated from five experiments with sheep (5 to 18 months old and 29.0 to 69.8 kg BW) undertaken at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute of the UK from 2013 to 2017. The trials were designed to evaluate the effects of dietary type, genotype, physiological stage and sex on nutrient utilization and energetic efficiencies. Energy intake and output data were measured in individual calorimeter chambers. Energy balance (Eg) was calculated as the difference between gross energy intake and a sum of fecal energy, urine energy, methane energy and heat production. Data were analysed using the restricted maximum likelihood analysis to develop the linear relationship between Eg or heat production and metabolizable energy (ME) intake, with the effects of a range of dietary and animal factors removed. The net energy (NEm) and ME (MEm) requirements for maintenance derived from the linear relationship between Eg and ME intake were 0.358 and 0.486 MJ/kg BW0.75, respectively, which are 40% to 53% higher than those recommended in energy feeding systems currently used to ration sheep in the USA and the UK. Further analysis of the current dataset revealed that concentrate supplement, sire type or physiological stage had no significant effect on the derived NEm values. However, female lambs had a significantly higher NEm (0.352 v. 0.306 or 0.288 MJ/kg BW0.75) or MEm (0.507 v. 0.441 or 0.415 MJ/kg BW0.75) than those for male or castrated lambs. The present results indicate that using present energy feeding systems in the UK developed over 40 years ago to ration the current sheep flocks could underestimate maintenance energy requirements. There is an urgent need to update these systems to reflect the higher metabolic rates of the current sheep flocks.

Keywords

calorimeter datalinear regressionmetabolizable energynet energycomparison
Type
Research Article
Information
animal , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , February 2020 , pp. 295 - 302
Copyright
© The Animal Consortium 2019 

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Footnotes

a

These two authors are considered joint first author.

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