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Voluntary intake, digestibility and rate of passage of a hay and a silage fed to horses and to cattle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

B. McLean
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen, Dept of Agriculture, 581 King Street, Aberdeen, AB9 1UD
A. Afzalzadeh
Affiliation:
Rowett Research Institute, Bucksbum, Aberdeen, AB2 9SB
L. Bates
Affiliation:
Aberdeen College of Further Education, School of Rural Studies, Clinterty, Kinellar, Aberdeen, AB2 OTN
R.W. Mayes
Affiliation:
Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB9 2QT
F.D.DeB. Hovell
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen, Dept of Agriculture, 581 King Street, Aberdeen, AB9 1UD Rowett Research Institute, Bucksbum, Aberdeen, AB2 9SB
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Extract

It is well established that the intake and digestibility of roughages by ruminants is positively correlated with rate of passage (ARC, 1980), presumably to enable as complete a microbial degradation of the poorer roughages as possible. On the other hand hind gut fermenters such as horses have been thought to have adopted the alternative strategy of using a high rate of passage to ‘cream’ off the rapidly degradable material of poor quality roughages so as to maintain adequate nutrient intakes. Surprisingly, there are remarkably few actual comparisons between ruminants and hindgut fermenters in the literature. Traditionally dried roughages (hay) and cereal and ‘by-product concentrates’ have been used as horse feeds (grains, brans sugar beet pulp). Recently there has been more interest in the use of silages with horses (eg Smoulders and Hobiers, 1988). However the information as to the utilisation of silages by horses is limited.

Type
Silage
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 1995

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References

References:

Ørskov, E.R. and McDonald, I. (1979). Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 92: 499503.10.1017/S0021859600063048CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smolders, E.A.A and Hobiers, H.J.Ph.L. (1988). Publikate Proefstation voor de Rundveehouderij 56: 5862.Google Scholar
Agricultural Research Council, (1980). The nutrient requirements of ruminant livestock. Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux. Slough.Google Scholar