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Feeding behaviour and digestive kinetics in sheep fed chopped or ground and pelleted low quality alfalfa hay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2017

A. de Vega
Affiliation:
Departamento de Producción Animal y Ciencia de los Alimentos, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Zaragoza, Miguel Servet, 177. 50013 Zaragoza, Spain
J. Gasa
Affiliation:
Departamento de Producción Animal y Ciencia de los Alimentos, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Zaragoza, Miguel Servet, 177. 50013 Zaragoza, Spain
M. Fondevila
Affiliation:
Departamento de Producción Animal y Ciencia de los Alimentos, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Zaragoza, Miguel Servet, 177. 50013 Zaragoza, Spain
A. López
Affiliation:
Departamento de Química Analítica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, Ciudad Universitaria, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
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Extract

Rumen capacity together with speed of rumen emptying limit voluntary intake of low quality well balanced forages (Ellis et al., 1983). Chemical composition and physical processing have important effect on both digestion plus absorption and passage through the reticulo-omasal orifice. Feeding chopped forage generate a large rumen pool of coarse particles which must be broken down by chewing and ruminating before to have a chance to escape from the compartment (Grovum, 1983). Grinding, by contrast, greatly reduce this rumen pool increasing likelihood of particles to leave the foregut (Rodrigue and Allen, 1960). This paper aims to study the effect of physical processing of roughage on feeding behaviour and digestive kinetics together with voluntary intake and digestibility.

Type
Ruminant Nutrition
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1990

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References

Dhanoa, M.S.; Siddons, R.C.; France, J. and Gale, D.L. (1985) Br.J.Nutr. 53 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, W.C.; Matis, J.H.; Pond, K.R.; Lascano, C.E.; Telford, J.P. (1983) In: Herbivore Nutrition. Ed. Gilchrist, and Mackie, R.I..Google Scholar
Grovum, W.L. (1983). In: Herbivore Nutrition. Ed. Gilchrist, and Mackie, .Google Scholar
Rodrigue, C.B. and Allen, N.N. (1960) Can.J.Anim.Sci. 40 Google Scholar