Effects of roughage quality, period of day and time lapse after meal termination on rumen digesta load in goats and sheep

Abstract

ObjectiveThis study ascertained effects of roughage quality, period of day at meal termination and time lapse after feeding on digesta load in the rumen.MethodsVeld hay was untreated (poor roughage quality, PRQ), improved (improved roughage quality, IRQ) by treating with urea or semi-improved by spraying with urea (semi-improved roughage quality, SIRQ). Experiment 1a used four rumen fistulated sheep to determine in-sacco degradability. Twelve sheep (56.3±4.59 kg) were blocked by weight and randomly allocated to IRQ (n = 6) and PRQ (n = 6) to determine solid and liquid passage rates. In experiment 1b, nine sheep (37.6±9.34 kg) were blocked by weight and randomly allocated to IRQ (n = 4) and PRQ (n = 5) to determine digestibility. Sixteen sheep (36.47±9.46 kg) were blocked by body weight and randomly allocated to IRQ (n = 8) and PRQ (n = 8). Two sheep were slaughtered for each sampling time in each treatment (IRQ and PRQ) at 0, 6, 12, and 24 h after feeding to determine rumen load. In experiment 2, eighteen goats (25.4±9.08 kg) were blocked by weight and randomly allocated to IRQ (n = 6), SIRQ (n = 6), and PRQ (n = 6). Then all 18 goats were slaughtered soon after meal termination in the morning; afternoon and evening to determine the effect of period of day on rumen fill.ResultsRate of degradation and effective degradability were enhanced by improvement of roughage quality. Roughage quality had no effect on digestibility, but digestibility was higher in goats than sheep. Fractional passage rate of particles was higher for IRQ than PRQ, but similar for liquids. Digesta fractional clearance rates at 24 h after feeding were 0.018/h (IRQ) and 0.006/h (PRQ). Period of day had an influence on rumen load. Neutral detergent fibre load for goats were above 2.03 kg/100 kg body weight for all diet treatments.ConclusionFollowing starvation, passage rate had negligible effects on emptying of rumen load.

Effects of diet and roughage quality, and period of the day on diurnal feeding behaviour patterns of sheep and goats under subtropical conditions

“…However, correlation results suggest that rumination time is a positive function of intake (Table 9) and is likely to increase with rumen ‘fill’ which is higher in animals after prolonged adaptation to roughage diets [32]. Observed rumen fill levels (kg fibre/100 kg weight) of greater than 2.2 were seen in goats [33] when 1.7 is expected for temperate ruminants [34]. A value greater than 1.7 should be applied to ruminants fed on tropical roughages in Africa.…”

Ingestive behaviour and Growth Performance of Boer Crossbred and Indigenous Goat Kids Under Different Feeding Levels in Semiarid Region in Brazil

“…This may have caused a high passage rate of the digesta through the gastrointestinal tract and a shorter retention time of the bolus resulting in the highest intake (Conte et al, 2018). NDF has a slow digestibility rate compared to soluble nutrients, such as CP and NFC, because it is not readily available to ruminal microorganisms and needs to be colonized by them to be degraded in the rumen (Moyo et al, 2018). The increase in the rate of passage is caused by the increased flow pressure caused by the ingestion of more feed on the digesta present in the gastrointestinal tract (Van Soest 1994).…”

Effect of dietary inclusions of different types of Acacia mearnsii on milk performance and nutrient intake of dairy cows

“…Tannins tend to also bind RDP and fibre which disadvantages rumen nutrient digestibility. Milk performance is a function of nutrient intake as influenced by diet digestibility ( Moyo et al., 2018 ; Mutimura et al., 2018 ). Milk parameters can benefit from the use of dietary tannins but their adoption is disadvantaged by conflicting nutrient intake and digestibility response to dietary tannins ( Matra & Wanapat, 2022 ).…”