Intake, digestion, and nitrogen and sulfur retention in Angora goats and Merino sheep fed herbage diets

1984 ◽  
Vol 24 (125) ◽  
pp. 165 ◽  
Author(s):  
PT Doyle ◽  
JK Egan ◽  
AJ Thalen
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Plant Cell Wall ◽  
Nitrogen Retention ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Merino Sheep ◽  
Limiting Nutrients ◽  
Digestible Organic Matter ◽  
Medium Quality ◽  
Angora Goats

The voluntary intake and digestion of three pasture hays of varying quality by Angora goats was compared with that by Merino sheep. The excretion and retention of nitrogen and sulfur were also measured. When a high quality hay was given, there were no differences between goats and sheep in the intake of organic matter (68 vs 61 g/kg0.75.d) or in organic matter digestibility (digestible organic matter intake) (72 vs 7 1 %). However, the goats appeared to utilize nitrogen less efficiently than the sheep as evidenced by nitrogen retention (673 vs 794 mg/100 g digestible organic matter intake.d), and there was a tendency for sheep to use absorbed energy more efficiently for body tissue synthesis. The apparent digestion of organic matter (65 vs 57%), plant cell wall constituents (67 vs 59%), nitrogen (29 vs 19%) and sulfur (40 vs 33%) in a medium quality hay low in nitrogen was greater in goats than in sheep. There were no differences in intake, but the goats were more efficient at conserving nitrogen (nitrogen retention -87 vs -200 mg/ 100 g digestible organic matter intake.d). Similar trends occurred when a poor quality hay with a higher nitrogen content was given. Goats have apparent advantages over sheep in their ability to digest fibrous feeds and conserve limiting nutrients from such feeds. Consequently, they may require less supplementary feeding than sheep in temperate areas during late summer and autumn when animals graze mature pastures.

The utilization of nitrogen and sulfur by weaner and mature merino sheep

1983 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 433 ◽  
Author(s):  
PT Doyle ◽  
JK Egan
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Energy Reserves ◽  
Merino Sheep ◽  
Adult Sheep ◽  
Digestible Organic Matter ◽  
Medium Quality ◽  
Ad Libitum ◽  
The Difference

The intake, excretion, and retention of nitrogen and sulfur were measured in weaner (liveweight 15-17 kg) and mature (40-45 kg) Merino sheep offered ad libitum amounts of three pasture hays. The hays (H, M and L) varied in their content of digestible organic matter (71, 59 and 45%), of nitrogen (2.84, 0.72 and 1.20%), and of sulfur (0.20, 0.13 and 0.09%). When given the most-digestible hay (H), the weaners retained more nitrogen than did the mature sheep (0.97 v. 0.81 g per l00g digestible organic matter intake (DOMI), but there was no difference in retention of sulfur (79 v. 74 mg per l00g DOMI)). However, on the basis of metabolic liveweight, the weaners incorporated more of both nutrients into tissues, while the mature wethers incorporated more nitrogen and sulfur into wool. The retention of nitrogen and of sulfur per unit of DOMI were similar for each age group of sheep when the medium quality hay (M) was given. Mature sheep again incorporated more of each nutrient into wool. With the poorest quality hay (L), the weaners excreted more nitrogen and sulfur as a proportion of the amounts consumed than did the mature sheep. This resulted in a lower retention of nitrogen (-1.45 v. -0.74 g per l00g DOMI) and sulfur (-77 v. -14 mg per l00g DOMI) by the weaners. There was a lower incorporation of nitrogen into tissues per unit of metabolic liveweight by the weaners, and the mature sheep incorporated more nitrogen and sulfur into wool. The weaners grew wool less efficiently (g per l00g DOMI) than the adult sheep on all diets, the difference being greatest when the poorest quality hay was given. These results are discussed in relation to the nature of tissue energy reserves in weaner sheep.

Effect of starch on the utilization by sheep of a straw diet supplemented with urea and minerals

1976 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 139 ◽  
Author(s):  
JG Mulholland ◽  
JB Coombe ◽  
WR McManus
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Nitrogen Retention ◽  
Nitrogen Excretion ◽  
Digestible Organic Matter ◽  
Cellulose Digestibility ◽  
Oat Straw ◽  
Total Body ◽  
Body Energy ◽  
Urinary Nitrogen Excretion ◽  
Urinary Nitrogen

Individually penned Border Leicester x Merino wethers, aged 11 months, were fed ad lib. for 16 weeks on a basal ration of ground, pelleted oat straw, urea and minerals, supplemented with 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 or 40% starch. The diets contained equal percentages of nitrogen and minerals. Dry matter intake reached a maximum of 2000 g/day with 30% starch; above this starch level, digestive disturbances were observed. Organic matter digestibility was increased by the addition of starch, but cellulose digestibility was depressed by as much as 18 units with the addition of 30% starch. Up to 10% the starch level had little effect on cellulose digestibility. Liveweight change was significantly correlated with digestible organic matter intake, mean daily weight gains varying from 22 g with no starch to 104 g with 30% starch. However, a large percentage of the liveweight gain was as total body water, and body energy storage increased appreciably only when the diet contained at least 20% starch. The inclusion of 5% starch slightly depressed both intake and liveweight gain. Daily clean wool production was significantly increased at starch levels higher than 20% and ranged from 5.3 to 7.5 g/day with 0 and 40% starch respectively. Increasing levels of starch had little effect on apparent nitrogen digestibility, but resulted in a substantial increase in nitrogen retention through a reduction in urinary nitrogen excretion. Serum urea levels fell from a mean of 42 mg/100 ml during the first week to 31 mg/100 ml during subsequent periods, with no significant differences between diets. With the general exception of potassium, mineral balances were positive or close to zero throughout the experiment.

Nutritional studies with sheep fed conserved ryegrass. 2. Silage supplemented with dried grass or barley

1980 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. G. Wernli ◽  
R. J. Wilkins
Keyword(s):  
Fatty Acids ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Volatile Fatty Acids ◽  
Rumen Fluid ◽  
Nitrogen Retention ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Physical Factors ◽  
Digestible Organic Matter ◽  
Nutritional Studies

SummaryGrass silage (21.0 % D.M.) was given ad libitum to sheep together with supplements of rolled barley, dried-grass pellets or dried-grass wafers at 12 and 25 g organic matter (OM)/kg0·75.Intake of silage was greater with supplement at 12 g/kg0·75 but total intake of OM and digestible organic matter (DOM) increased with increasing supplement. Intake of OM was higher with the pellet supplement than with other supplements. Intake of DOM, however, did not differ between the pellet and barley treatments, but was lower with wafers.Concentrations of ammonia and total volatile fatty acids and the molar proportions of butyric and higher volatile fatty acids were higher when silage was supplemented with barley than with dried grass. Mean rumen retention times of silage and of supplement were highest in the barley-supplemented treatments. Dried-grass wafers were retained longer than dried-grass pellets. Supplement treatments did not differ significantly for eating and ruminating times, rumen fluid volume and pH, digestion rate in the rumen and nitrogen retention.At the low supplement rate silage consumption may have been controlled by factors associated directly with the silage, whereas at the high rate intake was limited either by physical factors or by the potential energy demand of the animals.

The response of Merino lambs given whole wheat supplemented with urea or hay

1985 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 32 ◽  
Author(s):  
RW Hodge ◽  
C Kat
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Dry Matter ◽  
Nitrogen Retention ◽  
Dry Matter Intake ◽  
Whole Wheat ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Digestible Organic Matter

There was no significant difference in digestible dry matter intake (6 14 v. 63 1 g/day), liveweight gain (1 33 v. 13 1 g/day) or nitrogen retention (9.6 v. 11.2 g N/kg digestible organic matter) of Merino lambs offered whole wheat or whole wheat supplemented with 1.5% urea. Supplementation of the wheat or wheat plus urea rations with 20% hay also had no significant effect on total dry matter intake or liveweight gain.

The quality and quantity of forage oats sown at intervals during autumn: effects of nitrogen and supplementary irrigation

1976 ◽  
Vol 16 (81) ◽  
pp. 555
Author(s):  
RA Spurway ◽  
DA Hedges ◽  
JL Wheeler
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Growth Period ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Dead Leaf ◽  
Plant Establishment ◽  
Senescent Leaf ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Supplementary Irrigation ◽  
Digestible Organic Matter ◽  
Dryland Crops

The quality and production of forage oats (Avena sativa cv. Acacia) sown on five occasions between late summer and late autumn was measured in an experiment near Armidale, New South Wales. Additional treatments were nil vs. 71 kg ha-1 nitrogen (N) and non-irrigated vs. supplementary irrigation. Nitrogen fertilizer did not significantly affect plant establishment, or the dry matter or digestible organic matter production from any sowing. Plant establishment declined linearly in association with reductions in the mean ambient temperature during the ten days after sowing. Crops sown on February 25 and March 13 produced at least 35 per cent more forage (P < 0.05) with irrigation than dryland crops but with all later sowings the effect of irrigation was not significant. Early sown crops contained up to 36 per cent senescent leaf and 44 per cent dead leaf in August. Organic matter digestibility contents of green and senescent forage differed little and always exceeded 69 per cent, but that of the dead leaf was at times as low as 45 per cent. Equations are presented relating digestible organic matter available in irrigated and non-irrigated treatments to the length and mean temperature of the growth period.

Effects of season of growth and digestibility of herbage on intake by grazing dairy cows

1963 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Corbett ◽  
J. P. Langlands ◽  
G. W. Reid
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Dairy Cows ◽  
Live Weight ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Digestible Organic Matter ◽  
Feeding Value ◽  
Grazing Dairy Cows ◽  
Maintenance Requirements ◽  
Strip Grazing

SUMMARY1. The intakes of herbage organic matter (OM) and digestible organic matter (DOM) by twenty dairy cows were measured during two periods of strip grazing on one pasture, in spring and late summer of the same year.2. Results from the first 5-day measurement period in the spring suggested that intakes at this time were restricted primarily because the cows had difficulty in gathering the short herbage. Measurements on ten of the cows continued during a further 5 weeks while the digestibility of the OM of grazed herbage declined from about 80 to 68%. There was a fall of about 20% in DOM intake by the cows during this period; one-quarter of the fall could be ascribed to a reduction in OM intake and the remainder to the decline in digestibility as such.3. Intakes were measured during two weeks in late summer and were compared with those measured during two weeks in the spring when the digestibility of the grazed herbage was similar. Intakes of DOM expressed as lb./lb. live-weight0·73 were the lower by about 10% in the late summer, or by from 10 to 20% in terms of DOM available for production when allowance had been made for maintenance requirements. This finding is discussed in relation to practical experience of the feeding value of autumn grass.

Supplemental protein degradation, bacterial protein synthesis and nitrogen retention in sheep eating sodium hydroxide-treated straw

1986 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 557-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Amaning-Kwarteng ◽  
R. C. Kellaway ◽  
A. C. Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Protein Synthesis ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Sodium Hydroxide ◽  
Nitrogen Retention ◽  
Bacterial Protein ◽  
Rumen Degradation ◽  
In Vivo Measurement ◽  
Digestible Organic Matter ◽  
Bacterial Protein Synthesis

1. Alkali (sodium hydroxide)-treated wheat straw was given to six rumen- and abomasal-cannulated sheep to study the rumen degradation of cotton-seed meal (CSM) and barley (B), and the effects of these supplements on nitrogen retention and efficiency of bacterial protein synthesis were measured.2. N degradation, using porous synthetic (nylon) bags incubated within the rumen (P), and in vivo measurement determined from the abomasal flow of N (V), distinguished quantitatively between the two supplements. Estimates of P, corrected for fractional outflow rates/h (FOR), underestimated estimates of V when FOR of undegraded protein from the rumen (k) of 0.05 and 0.08 were used. Estimates of V for CSM and B were 70.9 and 80.8% respectively.3. Intakes of alkali-treated straw were not affected by the supplements. Intakes of digestible organic matter (DOM) for the diets comprising alkali-treated straw alone (W), straw plus CSM (WC) and straw plus barley (WB) were 477, 575 and 590 g/d respectively (P < 0.05) and organic matter (OM) apparently digested in the rumen (OMADR) was 339, 399 and 435 g/d respectively (P < 0.05).4. On W, WC and WB respectively, flows at the abomasum were 11.0, 14.0 and 13.3 g/d for bacterial N (P < 0.05) and 0,2.8 and 0.5 g/d for dietary supplemental N; g bacterial N/kg OMADR were 32.4, 35.6 and 30.9 (P > 0.05) and N balances were 2.37, 4.27 and 3.29 g/d (P < 0.05) on the respective treatments. It was suggested that supplements increased total OM intake as a result of increased OM digested in the rumen rather than OM flow from the rumen.

Effect of degradability of protein supplements on voluntary intake and nitrogen retention in young cattle fed grass silage

1984 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Gill ◽  
P. England
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Dry Matter ◽  
Latin Square ◽  
Nitrogen Retention ◽  
Protein Supplementation ◽  
Protein Supplements ◽  
Grass Silage ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Digestible Organic Matter ◽  
Gross Energy

ABSTRACTGrass silage was offered ad libitum to twelve 4-month-old British Friesian steers in an incomplete Latin-square experiment. The silage was given either alone or supplemented isonitrogenously with 50 g fish meal or 63 g groundnut meal per kg silage dry matter.Both protein supplements significantly increased the intakes of dry matter and organic matter by an amount about equivalent to the (calculated) contribution of the supplement (P < 0·05); they also increased the intakes of digestible organic matter and nitrogen (P < 0·001) but with no significant difference between supplements. Protein supplementation had no effect on the intake of indigestible organic matter.The digestibility coefficients of dry matter and of organic matter were significantly increased by supplementation (P < 0·05) as were the digestibility coefficients of gross energy and of nitrogen (P < 0·001). Nitrogen retention was also increased from 1·4 to 8·2 g/day (P < 0·001), with no significant difference between supplements.

Herbage as a source of digestible organic matter and digestible nitrogen for the grazing sheep.

1961 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 689 ◽  
Author(s):  
JE Vercoe ◽  
DE Tribe ◽  
GR Pearce
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Nutritional Value ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Index Method ◽  
Nitrogen Intake ◽  
Digestible Organic Matter ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Grazing Sheep ◽  
Summer Minimum ◽  
Maintenance Requirements

An experiment is reported in which the digestible organic matter and digestible nitrogen intakes of Corriedale wethers grazing on improved pastures in a Mediterranean- type environment 1%-ere measured by the faecal index method from August 1957 to August 1958. The mean digestible nitrogen intake fell from a maximum of 50 g/clay in the spring to a minimum of 6 g/day in the late summer, and reached an autumn maximum of 13 g/day before falling to a winter minimum of 8 g/day. The mean digestible organic matter intake fell from a maximum of 1500 g/day in the spring to a summer minimum of 600 g/day, rose again to an autumn maximum of 1000 g/day, and fell again to a winter minimum of 600 g/day. The results are discussed in relation to the theoretical maintenance requirements of the sheep and the nutritional value of herbage.

Herbage intake and production of Merino sheep grazing native and improved pastures at different stocking rates

1974 ◽  
Vol 14 (68) ◽  
pp. 307 ◽  
Author(s):  
JP Langlands ◽  
JE Bowles
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Nutritive Value ◽  
Sheep Grazing ◽  
Merino Sheep ◽  
Wool Production ◽  
Herbage Intake ◽  
Digestible Organic Matter ◽  
Native Pastures ◽  
Stocking Rates ◽  
Improved Pasture

Estimates were made of the herbage intake, nutritive value of the diet, liveweight, wool production, efficiency of wool production and fleece characteristics of fine wool merino sheep grazing native pastures at stocking rates of 1.9, 3.7 and 5.6 sheep ha-1. The effects of increased stocking rates on these variables, and differences between improved and native pastures were examined by regression analysis. Organic matter digestibility declined with increasing stocking rate and was consistently less on native than on improved pasture as were the N content and the ratio, N : organic matter digestibility in the diet. Organic matter intake/sheep did not differ between pasture types or stocking rates, but digestible organic matter, digestible nitrogen and nitrogen intakes were less on native pasture, and paralleled seasonal changes in nutritive value, minimum values being recorded in late winter. Both wool production/sheep and liveweight were greater on improved pastures. Wool production ha-1 was 4 to 10 times greater on improved than on native pastures at stocking rates at which wool production/sheep were similar. Efficiency of wool production expressed as g wool/100 g digestible organic matter consumed was greater on improved pasture but when expressed/100 g nitrogen intake, sheep grazing native pasture were more efficient. Possible reasons are discussed. The maintenance requirements for energy appeared to be similar on both types of pasture. Fleeces produced on native pastures were generally lighter with shorter staple lengths, and appeared to be one spinning count finer than those produced on improved pasture. They were also superior in terms of softness and colour but were less uniform.

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