Short‐term ingestive behaviour of sheep and goats grazing grasses and legumes
| Autor: | John G. Hodgson, Y. Gong, M. G. Lambert, I. L. Gordon |
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| Rok vydání: | 1996 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research. 39:63-73 |
| ISSN: | 1175-8775 0028-8233 |
| Popis: | Bite weight, bite rate, and bite dimensions (depth, area, and volume) were compared among six sheep and six goats individually confined indoors in metabolism crates, grazing monoculture turves (41 × 27 cm) of five grasses and four legumes at the vegetative and reproductive stages of growth. Each sampling period was restricted to 12–17 bites. Leguminous swards resulted in a greater overall fresh bite weight (1253 versus 994 mg fresh matter (FM), SE = 41, P < 0.001) despite a shallower bite depth (6.1 versus 22.1 cm, SE = 0.6, P < 0.001) compared with gramineous swards. Animals also obtained a faster bite rate on legumes than on grasses (28 versus 24 bites/min, SE = 0.8, P < 0.001). The taller reproductive swards led to greater bite weight (1297 versus 920 mg FM, SE = 37, P < 0.001), but lower bite rate than vegetative swards (18 versus 33 bites/min, SE = 1; P < 0.001). Consequently, short‐term intake rate did not change significantly with increased maturity (6.1 versus 5.7 g DM/min, SE = 0.2). Mea... |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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