How forage characteristics influence behaviour and intake in small ruminants: a review

Baumont, René; Prache, Sophie; Meuret, Michel; Morand-Fehr, P.

doi:10.1016/s0301-6226(00)00172-x

Cited by 206 publications

(151 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Alfalfa usually has less cell wall, and a higher rate of digesta passage (LaCasha et al, 1999), and lignification affects more of the digestible matter in grasses than in alfalfas, resulting in a lower intake relative to digestibility (Van Soest, 1994a). Sensorial properties can also affect intake: for ruminants, low intake of silage is often attributed to low palatability since digestibility is only slightly different from that of green forages (Baumont et al, 2000). At the same level of digestibility, eating alfalfa involves higher digestion and passage rate and thus lower fill effect in the ruminant rumen compared to grass hays.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore -Present address: Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, UR 1213 Unité de Recherches sur les Herbivores, 63122 Saint-Genè s-Champanelle, France. E-mail: nadege.edouard@clermont.inra.fr the time required to reduce the large ingested forage particles to small-sized particles of sufficient density to escape from the rumen is increased (Baumont et al, 2000 for a review). Since it takes longer for the food to pass through the digestive tract, voluntary intake declines because the rumen has a limited capacity (Reid et al, 1988;Jarrige et al, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Voluntary intake and digestibility in horses: effect of forage quality with emphasis on individual variability

Edouard

Fleurance

Martin‐Rosset

et al. 2008

Animal

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Food intake is a key biological process in animals, as it determines the energy and nutrients available for the physiological and behavioural processes. In herbivores, the abundance, structure and quality of plant resources are known to influence intake strongly. In ruminants, as the forage quality declines, digestibility and total intake decline. Equids are believed to be adapted to consume high-fibre low-quality forages. As hindgut fermenters, it has been suggested that their response to a reduction in food quality is to increase intake to maintain rates of energy and nutrient absorption. All reviews of horse nutrition show that digestibility declines with forage quality; for intake, however, most studies have found no significant relationship with forage quality, and it has even been suggested that horses may eat less with declining forage quality similarly to ruminants. A weakness of these reviews is to combine data from different studies in meta-analyses without allowing the differences between animals and diets to be controlled for. In this study, we analysed a set of 45 trials where intake and digestibility were measured in 21 saddle horses. The dataset was analysed both at the group (to allow comparisons with the literature) and at the individual levels (to control for individual variability). As expected, dry matter digestibility declined with forage quality in both analyses. Intake declined slightly with increasing fibre contents at the group level, and there were no effects of crude protein or dry matter digestibility on intake. Overall, the analysis for individual horses showed a different pattern: intake increased as digestibility and crude protein declined, and increased with increasing fibre. Our analysis at the group level confirms previous reviews and shows that forage quality explains little of the variance in food intake in horses. For the first time, using mixed models, we show that the variable 'individual' clarifies the picture, as the horses showed different responses to a decrease in forage quality: some compensated for the low nutritional value of the forages by increasing intake, few others responded by decreasing intake with declining forage quality, but not enough to cause any deficit in their energy and protein supplies. On the whole, all the animals managed to meet their maintenance requirements. The individual variability may be a by-product of artificial selection for performance in competition in saddle horses.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Voluntary intake and digestibility in horses: effect of forage quality with emphasis on individual variability

Edouard

Fleurance

Martin‐Rosset

et al. 2008

Animal

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“…Herbivores are able to use heterogenous resources by developing selective grazing strategies which allow them to elaborate a diet of better nutritional value than what is available to them as a whole [2]. Food selection and intake behaviour depend on the interaction between the animal's characteristics (morpho-physiology, nutritional requirement level) and the nature of the available vegetation (availability, structure, nutritional value and palatability) [7,63]). …”

Section: Behavioural Component Of the Adaptive Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive abilities of the females and sustainability of ruminant livestock systems. A review

Blanc

Bocquier²,

Agabriel

et al. 2006

Anim. Res.

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-In a systemic approach, the breeder can be considered as the decisional component of the livestock system, whereas animals are usually depicted to be part of its biotechnical component. The animal itself is a biological system whose ability to survive, grow, reproduce and cope with the environnement and livestock practices play a major role in the ability of the livestock system to sustain. In such a conceptual representation of the system, the reproductive females draw a peculiar attention since they determine in a great part the productivity and the durability of the system through their abilities to maintain their own production level (milk production, numeric productivity) and to save their reproductive efficiency (repeated pregnancies and lactations) over years. Considering the animal level and its lifespan, it is clear that the abilities to adapt rely on behavioural and physiological regulatory processes. The study of the biological mechanisms involved in the adaptation to undernutrition is particularly interesting since regulatory processes implied in energy metabolism may interfere directly or indirectly with the reproductive function, and consequently, with the durability of the livestock system. A biological significance of such relationships between nutrition and reproduction is given that they allow the female to be informed about the associated risk of entering a productive process facing the uncertainty of the nutritional context. Although the general mechanisms implied in the ability to adapt to the underfeeding constraint are conserved among ruminants, the thresholds (or priorities) may largely differ according to the breed within the same species. Hence, in order to evaluate the ability of the ruminant livestock systems to perpetuate in hard environments (maintaining their production levels) or to assess sustainable objectives (opening bushy landscapes by increasing grazing pressure), animals' inherent adaptive potentialities have to be well known. Résumé -Capacités adaptatives des femelles et durabilité des systèmes d'élevage. Synthèse bibliographique. Dans une représentation systémique du système d'élevage, l'éleveur incarne la composante décisionnelle du système, tandis que l'animal constitue, avec la ressource, sa composante biotechnique. L'animal lui-même peut être considéré comme un système biologique soumis à un environnement contraignant, dont les aptitudes à survivre, croître, se reproduire et s'adapter jouent un rôle fondamental dans la pérennité du système d'élevage. Les femelles reproductrices tiennent une place particulière dans cette représentation car non seulement elles déterminent une large part de la productivité du système par leur propre niveau de production (production laitière, productivité numérique), mais elles en assurent également sa reproductibilité au cours du temps (investissement reproductif). A l'échelle de l'individu et de sa durée de vie, les modalités d'adaptation reposent sur des processus de régulations comportementales et physiologiques. De tels pro...

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“…From an economic point of view, it is important for all these production systems to maximize the feed intake of animals in order to minimize the feed to live weight gain (LWG) ratio and thus to improve the overall productivity (Baumont et al, 2000). In grazing animals, the daily feed intake is generally assumed to be closely related to their daily foraging time (Newman et al, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of continuous v. daytime grazing on feed intake and growth of sheep grazing in a semi-arid grassland steppe

Müller

Liu

Wang

et al. 2012

Animal

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In the Inner Mongolian steppe, China, sheep generally graze during daytime and are kept in yards overnight. Hence, nutrients are not returned to the grassland, which might reduce its long-term productivity. Furthermore, the restricted grazing time may limit forage intake and thus the performance of sheep. The aim of this study was therefore to evaluate the impact of continuous 24-h grazing (CG) v. the common daytime grazing (DG) on herbage mass (HM), feed quality, feed organic matter intake (OMI) and live weight gain (LWG) of sheep in the Inner Mongolian steppe. Experiments were carried out from July to September, between 2005 and 2007 on two 2-ha plots per grazing treatment. Each month, the external faecal marker titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) was orally administered to six sheep per plot on 10 consecutive days. Faecal grab samples were obtained from day 6 to 10 and analysed for CP concentrations to estimate digestibility of organic matter (dOM). Faecal TiO 2 concentrations were used to determine the total faecal output and hence OMI of sheep. Concomitant to faeces collection, HM and quality, as well as LWG of the animals were measured. HM and herbage quality did not differ between treatments. However, as the season progressed, concentrations of NDF, ADF and ADL increased, whereas HM and CP concentrations declined. HM and herbage quality parameters differed between years according to the annual precipitation. dOM was similar in CG (0.577) and DG (0.572) sheep, but it decreased from July (0.583) to September (0.558) and differed between years. Accordingly, the OMI of sheep was similar for both treatments across the entire grazing season and all study years. Although mean LWG differed between months and years, it was identical in CG (101.5 g/day) and DG sheep (101.8 g/day). Additional time on pasture during night does not increase feed intake or animal performance. Positive effects of a nutrient reflux on grassland productivity and herbage quality when animals remained on the plots overnight were not found, most likely because of the fact that sheep crowded together in one corner of the plots during darkness and faecal and urinary excretions were thus not evenly distributed across the entire pasture. Considering the risk of animal theft as well as the importance of sheep manure as fuel, the common penning of sheep at night seems to be an adequate management practice for pastoralists in the Inner Mongolian steppe.

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How forage characteristics influence behaviour and intake in small ruminants: a review

Cited by 206 publications

References 56 publications

Voluntary intake and digestibility in horses: effect of forage quality with emphasis on individual variability

Voluntary intake and digestibility in horses: effect of forage quality with emphasis on individual variability

Adaptive abilities of the females and sustainability of ruminant livestock systems. A review

Effect of continuous v. daytime grazing on feed intake and growth of sheep grazing in a semi-arid grassland steppe

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