A diverse diet increases animal growth performance and carcass yield of grazing lambs.
| Autor: | Beck MR; Conservation and Production Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Bushland, TX 79012, USA., Garrett K; Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand., Marshall CJ; Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand., Gregorini P; Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand. |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Zdroj: | Translational animal science [Transl Anim Sci] 2024 Jul 10; Vol. 8, pp. txae103. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jul 10 (Print Publication: 2024). |
| DOI: | 10.1093/tas/txae103 |
| Abstrakt: | The current experiments were conducted across two lamb finishing seasons (2019 [experiment 1; Exp1 ] and 2020 [experiment 2; Exp2 ]). In both experiments lambs were provided a monotonous ( MON ) diet (annual ryegrass [ Lolium multiflorum L.] during 2019 and perennial ryegrass [ L. perenne L.] and white clover [ Trifolium repens L.] during 2020) or a diverse ( DIV ) diet composed of spatially separated strips sown to chicory ( Chicorium intybus L.), plantain ( Plantago lanceolata L.), perennial ryegrass, lucerne ( Medicago sativa L.), and dock ( Rumex obtusifolius ). During Exp1, the DIV lambs had a stocking rate ( SR ) of either 80, 95, 100, or 110 m 2 /lamb/wk, whereas the MON lambs had a 100 m 2 /lamb/wk SR. In Exp2, the SR aimed to allocate the MON lambs with twice the forage allowance (kg DM/lamb/d) as DIV lambs. In Exp1, all lambs provided DIV had a greater ( P < 0.01) average daily gain ( ADG ; + 130%) than MON rams, independent of the SR. Accordingly, DIV had greater ( P < 0.05) hot carcass weight ( HCW ; + 26%) and aged carcass weight ( CW ; + 27%) compared with MON, across all SR. The 80 m 2 /lamb/wk SR tended to have a greater ( P = 0.10) dressing percentage and had similar ( P = 0.29) drip loss percentage to the MON lambs, while the other DIV lamb SR all had greater ( P < 0.05; +12%) dressing percentages and lower ( P < 0.05) drip loss percentage than MON lambs. In Exp2, DIV lambs had greater ( P < 0.01) ADG (+37%), HCW (+15%), and dressing percentage (+6%) compared with MON lambs. This improved animal performance occurred despite being offered 57% less ( P = 0.01) dry matter ( DM ), 56% less ( P < 0.01) digestible DM, and 57% less ( P = 0.02) metabolizable energy per lamb per day. Ultimately, these experiments demonstrate that providing growing lambs a functionally diverse diet improves animal growth performance and carcass weight compared with a monotonous diet of annual ryegrass or a mixed sward containing perennial ryegrass with white clover. Competing Interests: None declared. (Published by Oxford University Press for the American Society of Animal Science 2024.) |
| Databáze: | MEDLINE |
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