Effects of grass silage feed value on feed intake and performance of pregnant and lactating ewes and their lambs

Abstract

Effects of grass silage feed value on intake, dietary sorting, body condition (BC) and body weight (BW) of pregnant and lactating ewes and on liveweight gain (LWG) of their suckling lambs were evaluated. Twin‐bearing ewes were fed ad libitum grass silage of (i) high feed value (HFV), (ii) medium feed value (MFV) and (iii) low feed value (LFV), plus 0·8 kg concentrate in late pregnancy and lactation. The HFV, MFV and LFV silages contained 11·7, 10·8 and 9·3 MJ metabolizable energy (ME) kg−1 DM respectively. The HFV resulted in 8·2 and 15·2 MJ greater ME intake in pregnancy and 14·7 and 21·0 MJ greater ME intake from silage in lactation than MFV and LFV respectively (P < 0·01). Ewes fed the MFV and LFV silages sorted for more digestible particles during eating (P < 0·10). The HFV gave no loss in BC, whereas ewes fed MFV and LFV lost 0·7 and 0·8 units of BC, respectively, during lactation (P < 0·10). There were similar trends in BW. The nursing HFV lambs had 73 g higher daily LWG than the LFV lambs (P < 0·01). In conclusion, the HFV increased the ME intake of pregnant and lactating ewes, resulting in improved BC and BW of lactating ewes and LWG of suckling lambs compared to MFV and LFV.

Digestibility and protein utilization in wethers fed whole-crop barley or grass silages harvested at different maturity stages, with or without protein supplementation1

“…According to Van Soest (1994), advanced stage of maturity at harvest increases the contents of NDF and lignin, and the ADL:NDF ratio in forage cell walls, decreasing the digestibility (Allen, 2000;Rustas et al, 2011). Harvesting grasses at early maturity stages increases the forage energy value for ruminants by decreasing the fiber concentration and increasing fiber digestibility and the CP concentration (Nadeau et al, 2016a). In the present study, grass and barley silage at an early maturity stage showed greater IVOMD than its counterpart harvested at late maturity stage, and also greater in vivo digestibility of DM and of all nutrients investigated.…”

“…Harvesting grasses for silage at early maturity stages are known to increase OM digestibility (OMD), intake, and performance of ewes (Nadeau et al, 2016a). Because of the accumulation of digestible starch during grain filling postheading, the OMD of whole-crop cereals remains relatively constant after milk stage of maturity (Rustas et al, 2011).…”

Risks and opportunities of increasing yields in organic farming. A review

“…Consequently, in order to increase yields in production systems with ruminants, increased forage quality through, e.g. optimising ley harvesting times (Nadeau et al 2015) would be more favourable for promoting soil fertility than introducing higher concentrate proportions.…”

“…Improved forage quality makes it possible to use high proportions of forage (e.g. 60-70% of total dietary dry matter) even for high-yielding cattle (Patel 2012;Nadeau et al 2015;Johansson et al 2016). Cows fed forage-based diets up to seven lactations showed no negative development in terms of production efficiency with age, older cows were even able to ingest more (Grandl et al 2016).…”

Examining the Effects of Whole Crop Wheat Silage on Ewe Performance during Late Gestation Compared to Traditional Grass Silage across Three Prolific Breed Types

“…Grazed grass is the most economical feed source for sheep in temperate regions of the world [1,2], however, climatic conditions limit grass growth during the winter months [3][4][5]. During this winter period, ewes in Ireland and elsewhere are often housed and offered conserved forage, predominantly grass silage [6][7][8], despite grass silage frequently being incapable of meeting the nutrient requirement of ewes, especially multiple bearing ewes, during late pregnancy [9,10]. Inadequate nutrient intake at this stage of the production cycle, which coincides with increased nutrient demand to support foetal development, can result in reduced colostrum production, milk production potential, and ewe body condition [11], and such periods of nutritional restriction may result in reduced lamb performance postpartum [12].…”