Effect of forage particle length on rumen fermentation, sorting and chewing activity of late-lactation and non-lactating dairy cows

Suarez-Mena, F.X.; Zanton, G.I.; Heinrichs, A.J.

doi:10.1017/s1751731112001565

Cited by 16 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This was not expected, as changing forage particle size has been shown to affect time spent chewing for oat silage, corn silage, and alfalfa hay (Kononoff and Heinrichs, 2003;Leonardi et al, 2005b;Kahyani et al, 2013). However, Suarez-Mena et al (2013) did not find a difference in time spent eating, chewing, or ruminating for nonlactating cows fed a diet differing in straw particle size, which is consistent with the findings of the current study. It may be that the difference between treatments in straw particle size, in both studies, was not large enough to elicit a response in chewing time.…”

Section: Figuresupporting

confidence: 85%

Effect of straw particle size on the behavior, health, and production of early-lactation dairy cows

Coon

Duffield

DeVries

2018

Journal of Dairy Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of reducing the particle size of wheat straw in a total mixed ration (TMR) on cow behavior, health, and production in early lactation. For 28 d after calving, 41 multiparous Holstein cows were individually provided either 1 of 2 TMR with 9% wheat straw (dry matter basis) chopped (1) using a 2.54-cm screen (short; n = 21) or (2) using a 5.08-cm screen (long; n = 20). Cows were housed in freestall pens during both the dry and lactating period. Enrollment in the trial was on a rolling basis and cows were evenly distributed by parity and milk production between treatments. Wireless telemetry boluses were used to measure reticulorumen pH. Automated systems recorded TMR dry matter intake, milk yield, and rumination activity. The TMR and orts samples were collected every 3 d to determine feed sorting. A particle separator was used to separate feed samples into 4 fractions: long (>19 mm), medium (<19 mm, >8 mm), short (<8 mm, >4 mm), and fine (<4 mm) particles. Feed sorting was calculated as actual intake of each particle fraction expressed as a percentage of its predicted intake. Cows sorted the longest TMR particles differently by treatment; on the long treatment cows sorted against long particles (94.2 ± 1.9%), whereas on the short treatment cows did not sort for or against these particles (99.7 ± 1.9%). Data were analyzed in mixed-effect linear regression models and fitted with polynomial functions over the 28 d of observations. The fitted data indicated treatment differences in linear coefficients, quadratic coefficients, and cubic coefficients for mean time (min/d) below a reticulorumen pH of 5.8 and milk yield. Rumination time (min/d) differed between treatments for quadratic and cubic coefficients. Cows on the short treatment linearly increased in dry matter intake at a greater rate than cows on the long treatment. Mean reticulorumen pH decreased at a greater rate for cows on the long treatment than for cows on the short, as indicated by differences between linear coefficients. Cows on the short treatment tended to produce 75 kg more milk cumulatively during the first 28 d in milk than cows on long treatment. These results suggest that cows fed a diet with longer straw particles selected against physically effective fiber, which may have contributed to greater fluctuations in rumination time, reticulorumen pH, dry matter intake, and milk production in early lactation.

show abstract

Section: Figuresupporting

confidence: 85%

Effect of straw particle size on the behavior, health, and production of early-lactation dairy cows

Coon

Duffield

DeVries

2018

Journal of Dairy Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In our study, the possible reason of shorter time period and lesser eating rate for animals consuming the LF diet in both FL and SL was lower NDF content and lesser DMI. Similar findings have also been reported in the literature (Suarez‐Mena et al., ; Giger‐Reverdin et al., ). The higher time consuming of H:C in both FL and SL was due to high NDF content and higher DMI (DeVries et al., ; Suarez‐Mena et al., ) of H:C in FL and SL.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Dietary forage concentration and particle size affect sorting, feeding behaviour, intake and growth of Chinese holstein male calves

Muhammad

Xia

Cao

2015

Animal Physiology Nutrition

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The objective of study was to evaluate the effect of forage concentration (F:C) and forage particle length (FPL) on sorting, feeding behaviour, intake, growth and body measurements of growing calves. Twenty-eight weaned calves of body weight 156.79 ± 33.44 (mean ± SD) were used in 2 × 2 factorial arrangements with the factors FPL of hay grass (full and short) and hay grass concentrations (low, 50% and high, 65%). The treatments were as follows: full length (FL) with low F:C (50:50), FL with high F:C(65:35), short length (SL) with low F:C (50:50) and SL with high F:C (65:35). Increasing F:C and decreasing FPL enhanced sorting for short and fine particle and sorting against long particle (p < 0.05). Dry matter intake (DMI) was decreased by decreasing the FPL (p < 0.05). Increasing F:C (65:35) increased the DMI (p < 0.05). A positive interaction between FPL and F:C was found for (daily weight gain) DWG, weight gain (WG) and feed conversation ratio (FCR) (p < 0.05). In case of feeding behaviour, interaction for eating time and eating time per kilogram DM was present. Increasing the F:C increased the eating time in both FL and SL (p < 0.05). Chopping of hay had decreased the chewing time (p < 0.05). Increasing F:C increased chewing time per kilogram DMI. High F:C decreased the lying time (p < 0.05) in FL and SL treatments (p < 0.05). Increasing F:C reduced the overall abnormal behaviour (p < 0.05). These results suggested that animals performed better at higher F:C at SL diet. Intensity of sorting for short and fine particle and against long particle increased at higher F:C and SL diets. Eating time and eating time per kilogram DMI increased by increasing F:C level in both FL and SL treatments. Chewing time increased by increasing the FPL, while increasing the F:C enhanced the chewing time per kilogram DMI and reduced animal's abnormal behaviour.

show abstract

“…Cows fed alfalfa hay with a particle size of 30 mm had longer eating times than cows fed the same hay with a particle size of 15 mm [24], whereas time spent eating, time spent ruminating and total time spent chewing were not significantly different in cows fed hay with particles measuring 5.40, 8.96 and 77.90 mm [25]. On the other hand, eating minutes per kilogram dry matter intake and neutral detergent fibre intake tended to increase linearly as forage length increased [25]. The number of daily rumination phases of 10 to 20 observed in this study was in agreement with published numbers [14,18,19].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of eating and rumination behaviour in cows using a noseband pressure sensor

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundAn automated technique for recording eating and rumination behaviour was evaluated in ten lactating Brown Swiss cows by comparing data obtained from a pressure sensor with data obtained via direct observation over a 24-hour period. The recording device involved a pressure sensor integrated in the noseband of a halter. The analysed variables included number and duration of individual rumination, eating and resting phases, total daily length of these phases and number of cuds chewed per day.ResultsEating and rumination phases were readily differentiated based on characteristic pressure profiles. Chewing movements during rumination were regular and generated regular waveforms with uniform amplitudes, whereas eating generated irregular waveforms with variable amplitudes. There was complete or almost complete agreement and no significant differences between data obtained via direct observation and pressure sensor technique. Both methods yielded an average of 16 daily eating phases with a mean duration of 28.3 minutes. Total time spent eating was 445.0 minutes for direct observation and 445.4 minutes for the pressure sensor technique. Both techniques recorded an average of 13.3 rumination phases with a mean duration of 30.3 (direct observation) and of 30.2 (pressure sensor) minutes. Total time spent ruminating per day, number of cuds per day and chewing cycles per cud were 389.3 and 388.3 minutes, 410.1 and 410.0 and 60.0 and 60.3 for direct observation and pressure sensor technique, respectively. There was a significant difference between the two methods with respect to mean number of chewing cycles per day (24′669, direct observation vs. 24′751, pressure sensor, P < 0.05, paired t-test). There were strong correlations between the two recording methods with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.98 to 1.00.ConclusionsThe results confirmed that measurements of eating and rumination variables obtained via the pressure sensor technique are in excellent agreement with data obtained via direct observation.

show abstract

Effect of forage particle length on rumen fermentation, sorting and chewing activity of late-lactation and non-lactating dairy cows

Cited by 16 publications

References 25 publications

Effect of straw particle size on the behavior, health, and production of early-lactation dairy cows

Effect of straw particle size on the behavior, health, and production of early-lactation dairy cows

Dietary forage concentration and particle size affect sorting, feeding behaviour, intake and growth of Chinese holstein male calves

Evaluation of eating and rumination behaviour in cows using a noseband pressure sensor

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About