Supplemental barley and charcoal increase intake of sagebrush by lambs

Abstract

We evaluated the influence of supplemental barley and activated charcoal on the intake of sagebrush by lambs in individual pens. In 3 experiments, lambs were fed sagebrush (harvested and chopped to 2-3 cm) during the morning; they were fed a basal diet of alfalfa pellets in the afternoon. In the first experiment, lambs supplemented with activated charcoal + barley ate more A. tridentata ssp. vaseyana than lambs supplemented with barley (304 vs. 248 g; P = .071). A second set of experiments, which consisted of 3 trials, determined the effects of activated charcoal, barley, and subspecies of sagebrush on intake of sagebrush. Lambs supplemented with activated charcoal + barley ate more A. tridentata ssp. vaseyana (Trial 1; 292 vs. 225 g; P = .086), and more A. tridentata ssp. tridentata (Trial 2; 371 vs. 255 g; P = .031) than lambs supplemented with barley. In Trial 3, lambs supplemented with barley ate more sagebrush than lambs that were not supplemented (480 vs. 318 g; P = .0002). A third set of experiments compared activated charcoal + barley, barley, and no supplement in 2 trials. In Trial 1, lambs supplemented with activated charcoal + barley or barley generally ate more A. tridentata ssp. v a s e y a n a than lambs not supplemented (P = .017). In Trial 2, lambs supplemented with activated charcoal + barley ate slightly more A. t r i d e n t a t a ssp. v a s e y a n a than lambs supplemented with barley, and they ate substantially more than lambs not supplemented (P = .032). Collectively, the results suggest that energy from supplemental barley increased intake of sagebrush by lambs fed a basal ration of alfalfa pellets which are high in protein, and that activated charcoal played a minor role in further increasing intake of sagebrush.

Effect of supplementation with barley and calcium hydroxide on intake of Mediterranean shrubs by goats

“…However, when chemically defended plants occur in association with plants of high nutritive value or if animals are supplemented with medicines (e.g. PEG, activated charcoal or Ca(OH)2), intake of defended plants may be proportionally higher (Bryant et al, 1991;Banner et al, 2000;Provenza et al, 2000;Rogosic et al, 2006aRogosic et al, , 2006c, leading to an increased utilisation of all five Mediterranean shrubs investigated; therefore, the intake of A. unedo and V. tinus was not stat istically significant.…”

“…Nutrients and medicines like polyethylene glycol (PEG) (Silanikove et al, 1994(Silanikove et al, , 1997Titus et al, 2000;Villalba et al, 2002b;Rogosic et al, 2006a), activated charcoal (Banner et al, 2000;Poage 2000;Rogosic et al, 2006c) and Ca(OH)2 (Dollahite, et al, 1966;Murdiati et al, 1990) enhance intake and improve efficiency of detoxification by providing substrates for eliminating toxins (Illius and Jessop, 1996;Foley et al, 1999). When chemically defended plants are abundant relative to alternative forages in plant communities such as Mediterranean maquis (which contains roughly 25 shrubby species), intake is limited owing to the lack of adequate nutrients and medicines to enhance detoxification (Freeland and Janzen, 1974;Bryant et al, 1991).…”

“…After the baseline was established, all animals were submitted to a five-day preconditioning period (to reduce neophobia) where 20 g of finely ground Ca(OH)2 mixed with 200 g of barley was offered from 08h00 to 08h30, and all five shrubs were offered in individual feeding boxes, continually replenished from 08h30 to 14h00. We mixed Ca(OH)2 with barley to accustom the animals to the supplement and to facilitate initial acceptance of the shrubs as well as to reduce the possibility of taste aversions (Banner et al, 2000).…”

“…The effects of nutrients and activated charcoal on terpene-rich sagebrush intake have been examined by Banner et al (2000), Burrit and Provenza (2000) and Villalba et al (2002a), and the effects of supplemental macronutrients and polyethylene glycol on tannin-containing food have been examined by Titus et al (2000) and Villalba et al (2002b). Calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH) 2) is commonly used in veterinary medicine for the oral treatment of acidity in the gastrointestinal system, diarrhoea and acid poisoning in domesticated animals.…”

The Art and Science of Targeted Grazing—A Producer's Perspective

“…Thus, animals do possess "nutritional wisdom" but it comes from an involuntary system that affords maximum flexibility for animals to learn about the inevitable nutritional changes that occur in rangeland forages across space and time. These findings are also important because people have used this knowledge to train sheep to forage in vineyards without eating grape leaves (http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/ printable_news.lasso?id=8200&table=news), train cattle and horses not to eat poisonous plants such as larkspur (cattle) and locoweed (horses) (Ralphs and Provenza, 1999), train cattle to eat weeds (http://www.livestockforlandscapes.com), and train sheep and cattle to eat sagebrush or blackbrush (Banner et al, 2000; Photo 2).…”