The effect of concentrate on digestibility of sheep rations
2003
Wojtasik, J. | Matras, J. | Klebaniuk, R. (Akademia Rolnicza, Lublin (Poland). Inst. Zywienia Zwierzat)
Three experiments (balance method) on digestibility, each on adult sheep divided in groups were carried out. The animals were in individual cages. In experiments 1 and 2 the animals of each treatment received ad libitum meadow hay, but different amounts of concentrate - 0, 0.3, 0.6 kg or ad libitum in treatments, I, II, III and IV, respectively. The concentrates were ground triticale (experiment 1) or concentrate mixture with higher protein content (experiment 2). In experiment 3 the animals of all treatments were fed ad libitum maize silage and different amounts of concentrate mixture, like in experiment 2. In experiments 1 and 2 (where hay was given ad libitum) the concentrate doses up to 0.6 kg decreased hay intake. The total diet DM intake however increased from 67 g to 78 g/kg BW 0.75 in experiment 1 and from 64 g to 72 g/kg BW 0.75, respectively, in experiment 2. Concentrate given ad libitum significantly decreased total DM intake up to 54 g/kg BW 0.75 (exp. 1). Increasing levels of concentrates in treatments, irrespectively of the kind of roughage, increased OM digestibility from 71.2 to 77.9 percent in exp. 1, from 70.7 to 75 percent in the diets with hay (exp. 2) and from 69.6 to 75.8 percent in the diets with maize silage (exp. 3). The influence of concentrate on diet protein digestibility was similar in all three experiments. Concentrates fed in the diets generally caused a decrease of crude fibre digestibility with an exception of experiment 3, where 0.3 kg concentrate addition increased significantly from 57.7 to 62.9 percent the digestibility coefficient of this nutrient in this diet. Therefore, concentrate mixture improved the utilization of this nutrient contained in maize silage
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