Effects of harvesting perennial ryegrass at different levels of herbage mass on voluntary intake and in vivo digestibility in sheep

Autor: Jocelyne Aufrere, Marion Beecher, N. Galvin, Michael O'Donovan, C. Fleming, Eva Lewis, Tommy M. Boland, René Baumont
Přispěvatelé: Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre (AGRICE), School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin [Dublin] (UCD), Unité Mixte de Recherche sur les Herbivores - UMR 1213 (UMRH), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-VetAgro Sup - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, sciences agronomiques et de l'environnement (VAS)-AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement, VetAgro Sup - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, sciences agronomiques et de l'environnement (VAS)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: Grass and Forage Science
Grass and Forage Science, Wiley, 2018, 73 (2), pp.553-561. ⟨10.1111/gfs.12319⟩
ISSN: 0142-5242
1365-2494
Popis: International audience; The production performance of herbage-fed animals is affected by herbage voluntary dry-matter intake (VDMI) and organic matter digestibility. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of herbage mass (HM) on in vivo herbage voluntary intake and digestibility in sheep. The three HM treatments were as follows: 1,100 kg dry matter (DM)/ha (low, L), 2,300 kg DM/ha (medium, M) and 3,700 kg DM/ha (high, H). The study was a Latin square design, repeated on two occasions in 2012: 24 May to 20 July (summer) and 21 July to 5 October (autumn). Twelve Texel wether sheep (individually housed) were offered fresh cut perennial ryegrass herbage for ad libitum consumption. Using the total faecal collection method, the digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, neutral detergent fibre and acid detergent fibre was determined. In summer, L had a similar VDMI to M and both had a higher VDMI than H. In autumn, L had a higher VDMI than both M and H. For dry-matter digestibility and organic matter digestibility, there was no significant difference between L and M, which were both higher than H. For every 1% increase in neutral detergent fibre digestibility, VDMI increased by 0.03 kg. In the zero-grazing scenario examined, offering low (1,100 kg DM/ha) HM swards enabled animals to achieve high intakes of highly digestible herbage, which should ensure high animal production performance.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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