Feeding behaviour and intake of heifers fed on hays of various quality, 
offered alone or in a choice situation

Ginane, Cécile; Baumont, René; Lassalas, Jacques; Petit, M.

doi:10.1051/animres:2002016

Cited by 33 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This was true for sheep preferring the flavour presented first within a conditioning period over that presented second (Arsenos et al, 2000), for ewes preferring the opposite species (i.e. white clover or ryegrass) to the one they had previously grazed (Newman et al, 1992;Parsons et al, 1994), and for heifers temporarily increasing their preference for the hay that had not been offered during the previous period (Ginane et al, 2002). The authors suggested that the preference for the 'new' hay could be explained by (i) the animal's need to select a balanced diet that best meets its homeostatic requirements or (ii) the animals' search for rarity for functional purposes, such as maintaining gut flora diversity or (iii) an attractive effect of novelty, considered as a search for diversity.…”

Section: Sensory Characteristics: a Way To Get Pleasurementioning

confidence: 95%

Food sensory characteristics: their unconsidered roles in the feeding behaviour of domestic ruminants

Favreau-Peigné

Baumont

Ginane

2013

Animal

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When domestic ruminants are faced with food diversity, they can use pre-ingestive information (i.e. food sensory characteristics perceived by the animal before swallowing the food) and post-ingestive information (i.e. digestive and metabolic consequences, experienced by the animal after swallowing the food) to evaluate the food and make decisions to select a suitable diet. The concept of palatability is essential to understand how pre-and post-ingestive information are interrelated. It refers to the hedonic value of the food without any immediate effect of post-ingestive consequences and environmental factors, but with the influence of individual characteristics, such as animal's genetic background, internal state and previous experiences. In the literature, the post-ingestive consequences are commonly considered as the main force that influences feeding behaviour whereas food sensory characteristics are only used as discriminatory agents. This discriminatory role is indeed important for animals to be aware of their feeding environment, and ruminants are able to use their different senses either singly or in combination to discriminate between different foods. However, numerous studies on ruminants' feeding behaviour demonstrate that the role of food sensory characteristics has been underestimated or simplified; they could play at least two other roles. First, some sensory characteristics also possess a hedonic value which influences ruminants' intake, preferences and food learning independently of any immediate post-ingestive consequences. Further, diversity of food sensory characteristics has a hedonic value, as animals prefer an absence of monotony in food sensory characteristics at similar post-ingestive consequences. Second, some of these food sensory characteristics become an indicator of post-ingestive consequences after their initial hedonic value has acquired a positive or a negative value via previous individual food learning or evolutionary processes. These food sensory characteristics thus represent cues that could help ruminants to anticipate the post-ingestive consequences of a food and to improve their learning efficiency, especially in complex environments. This review then suggests that food sensory characteristics could be of importance to provide pleasure to animals, to increase palatability of a food and to help them learn in complex feeding situations which could improve animal welfare and productivity.

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Section: Sensory Characteristics: a Way To Get Pleasurementioning

confidence: 95%

Food sensory characteristics: their unconsidered roles in the feeding behaviour of domestic ruminants

Favreau-Peigné

Baumont

Ginane

2013

Animal

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“…Provenza et al (1996) described that lambs enhanced their intake when several feeds were offered simultaneously as compared to offering only one feed, no matter whether the feeds on offer had similar or different quality, or differed in flavour. Ginane et al (2002) reported a higher daily DM intake when a choice among two hays of different or similar quality was offered than when one of these hay types was offered alone and explained this by an increased motivation to eat when a diverse offer is available. Even though high quality feeds are preferred by the animals in a choice situation, feeds with lower quality might help to motivate intake simply by increasing the diversity on offer (Ginane et al, 2002), because monotonous diets might lead earlier to a sensory-specific satiety (Rolls, 1986) thus decreasing the motivation to eat due to the lack of feed alternatives (Villalba et al, 2010).…”

Section: Choice Vs No-choice Situations With Low-quality Foragesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ginane et al (2002) reported a higher daily DM intake when a choice among two hays of different or similar quality was offered than when one of these hay types was offered alone and explained this by an increased motivation to eat when a diverse offer is available. Even though high quality feeds are preferred by the animals in a choice situation, feeds with lower quality might help to motivate intake simply by increasing the diversity on offer (Ginane et al, 2002), because monotonous diets might lead earlier to a sensory-specific satiety (Rolls, 1986) thus decreasing the motivation to eat due to the lack of feed alternatives (Villalba et al, 2010). When testing different Mediterranean woody forages offered for 6 h/d by varying the number of feeds on offer between each 5-day period, intake increased or decreased along with the number of feeds (Rogosic et al, 2006(Rogosic et al, , 2007 which was explained by the changing biochemical diversity.…”

Section: Choice Vs No-choice Situations With Low-quality Foragesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They explained this by the inability of the animals to sufficiently discriminate between the feeds. Another reason for partial preferences could be sampling behaviour with the purpose of continuously re-assessing the nutritional characteristics of all feeds by ingesting small amounts which had been concluded by Ginane et al (2002) from an experiment where heifers were offered a choice among two hays of different quality showed high numbers of switching between the two hays and short eating events for the hay of lower quality. It seems also likely that the partial preferences expressed in the binary and multiple choice tests were an expression of sampling behaviour.…”

Section: Woody Test Plants: Nutritional Value and Preference Under DImentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This enables the animal to consume more plants either complementary in nutrient composition, or with potentially harmful compounds (Lyman et al, 2008) by benefitting from the biochemical complementarity of these compounds (Manteca et al, 2008). Generally, a more diverse feed offer could increase intake (Rogosic et al, 2008) by increasing the animals' motivation to eat (Ginane et al, 2002) and improve performance by giving the animals the chance to select a nutritionally optimised diet (Duncan et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Intake pattern and nutrient supply of lactating sheep selecting dried forage from woody plants and straw offered in binary or multiple choice

Meier

Liesegang

Louhaichi

et al. 2014

Animal Feed Science and Technology

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This study investigated whether offering either binary or multiple choice among low quality forages has an effect on intake and feeding behaviour compared to no-choice situations where only one single low-quality forage is offered. Forages from different woody plants and straw were tested in lactating sheep either in Syria (Exp. 1; Awassi sheep) or in Switzerland (Exp. 2; East Friesian Dairy sheep). Artemisia herba-alba, Atriplex leucoclada, Haloxylon articulatum, Noaea mucronata, and Salsola vermiculata were used in Exp. 1. The three most preferred plants (A. leucoclada, H. articulatum and S. vermiculata) were tested again in Exp. 2 together with Betula pendula, Castanea sativa and Juglans regia. Both experiments started with a binary choice test where one plant and barley straw were offered separately for 4 h in the morning to six sheep (test period) in a random sequence in consecutive 7-day sub-periods. A control group (n = 6 per experiment) received only straw in the test period. For the rest of the day, a basal diet composed of straw ad libitum and concentrate was offered. After the binary choice test, two 2-week periods followed, where in the first straw only and in the second all test plants were offered to all animals from both groups to ascertain equal familiarisation with all plants. For the following 7-day multiple choice test animals were allocated to two new groups. The 'multiple choice' group could choose among all test plants and straw during the 4-h test period, the 'control' group received only the basal diet. Intakes of test feeds during 4 h and 24 h as well as feeding behaviour during the first 30 min were recorded. Additionally, nutrient intake was determined. Total daily test feed intake was always higher in the choice groups, but this was more pronounced in the multiple choice situation (Exp. 1: 30 and 48, Exp. 2: 49 and 74 g dry matter/kg live-weight0.75 with 'control' and 'multiple choice', respectively). A. leucoclada (Exp. 1; proportionately 0.73 of total test plant intake) and B. pendula (Exp. 2; 0.87) were the preferred plants in the multiple choice test and also with binary choice. Most other feeds were only consumed in low amounts in the binary and even less in multiple choice situations. In conclusion, giving sheep the choice among low quality forages seemed to be advantageous. Even though in both experiments animals preferred especially one plant, choice still facilitated intake. t r a c tThis study investigated whether offering either binary or multiple choice among low quality forages has an effect on intake and feeding behaviour compared to no-choice situations where only one single low-quality forage is offered. Forages from different woody plants and straw were tested in lactating sheep either in Syria (Exp. 1; Awassi sheep) or in Switzerland (Exp. 2; East Friesian Dairy sheep). Artemisia herba-alba, Atriplex leucoclada, Haloxylon articulatum, Noaea mucronata, and Salsola vermiculata were used in Exp. 1. The three most preferred plants (A. leucoclada, H. articulatu...

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Selection of feeding areas by cattle in a spatially heterogeneous environment: selection between two tropical grasses

Hirata

Sakou

Terayama

et al. 2007

J Ethol

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A herd of 28-33 Japanese Black cows (Bos taurus) were allowed to graze on an experimental plot comprising monoculture swards of centipedegrass (Eremochloa ophiuroides) and bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum) (0.39 and 0.61 ha, respectively) for 3-5 days each month (from 0850 to 1600 hours) between May (late spring) and October (mid-autumn). On a monthly basis, the animals showed an increasing trend to select centipedegrass in preference to bahiagrass as the relative crude protein (CP) concentration of the former increased relative to the latter. On a daily basis, the animals showed a decreased selectivity for centipedegrass with the progression of grazing days, as centipedegrass sward lost both quantity and quality faster than bahiagrass sward under higher degrees of defoliation. Animals maintained similar bite rates on the two swards by modifying feeding station behavior as soon as they switched between the swards, i.e., they increased the number of bites per feeding station and decreased the number of feeding stations selected per unit grazing time soon after switching to centipedegrass, with the reverse process occurring soon after the switch to bahiagrass. The results show CP concentration to be a partial forage factor influencing animals' choice between tropical grasses growing as patches. The results also demonstrate that animals have an ability to adapt their foraging behavior flexibly and rapidly to varying types of vegetation.

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Feeding behaviour and intake of heifers fed on hays of various quality, offered alone or in a choice situation

Cited by 33 publications

References 24 publications

Food sensory characteristics: their unconsidered roles in the feeding behaviour of domestic ruminants

Food sensory characteristics: their unconsidered roles in the feeding behaviour of domestic ruminants

Intake pattern and nutrient supply of lactating sheep selecting dried forage from woody plants and straw offered in binary or multiple choice

Selection of feeding areas by cattle in a spatially heterogeneous environment: selection between two tropical grasses

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