Performance of sheep fed forage cactus with total water restriction

Abstract

SUMMARYA lack of water in livestock production can limit the performance of the animals; therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of water restriction on the growth performance of sheep that were fed forage cactus (Nopalea cochenillifera). Forty-two male sheep were used, with an average age and weight of ±100 days and 18.75 ± (2,05) kg , respectively, and they were fed diets containing concentrate, mineral mixture and three levels of substitution (30, 50 and 70%) of Tifton hay with forage cactus (Nopalea cochenillifera). The animals were slaughtered when they reached 32 kg (± 1 kg) of body weight or 90 days. The experimental design was a 3x2 factorial arrangement, forage cactus (30, 50, 70%) x water (with or without water) plus a control group (n=6). Variables were analyzed using Tukey and Dunnett's test at 5% with PROC GLM in SAS software. Voluntary water intake and dry matter intake (DMI) decreased with the inclusion of forage cactus; however, preformed water intake and total water intake increased with the inclusion of forage cactus. Water restriction and its interaction with the treatments had no effect on animal performance. Daily weight gain was higher for the diets with 30 and 50%forage cactus inclusion, at 174 and 155 g, respectively, compared with 90 g for the control diet. Cactus, therefore, can be used as a food supplement and water resource.

Prickly Pear By-Product in the Feeding of Livestock Ruminants: Preliminary Investigation

“…In this regard, prickly pear provides an excellent and cheap alternative feed to supplement livestock diets [10][11][12][13] due to its efficiency in converting water to dry matter (DM.) In fact, during periods of drought, ranchers allow cattle and sheep to eat the pads, after burning off the spines, as a resource of both food and water [14][15][16][17]. When sheep fed with spineless cactus exceeded 300 g/d dry matter, their drinking water intake approached zero [18,19].The more recent studies investigating the effects of Opuntia forage on rumen digestion, weight gain and other physiological traits in cattle, sheep, or goats showed that the animals fed diets in which Opuntia forage was supplemented with protein-rich feeds improved their health status and reproductive performance [20].…”

Nutritional and mineral content of prickly pear cactus: A highly water‐use efficient forage, fodder and food species

“…as a water‐use efficient biofuel feedstock (Borland, Griffiths, Hartwell, & Smith, ; Cushman, Davis, Yang, & Borland, ; do Nascimento Santos et al, ; Mason et al, ). In many semi‐arid and arid regions throughout the world, including Mexico and the United States, O. ficus‐indica is also used as forage and fodder during periods of drought where ranchers burn off the spines and allow cattle and sheep to utilize the pads as both a food and water resource (Cordova‐Torres et al, ; Guevara et al, ; Guevara, Suassuna, & Felker, ; Shoop, Alford, & Mayland, ). When spineless cactus supplied to sheep exceeded 300 g DM per day, sheep consumed essentially zero drinking water (Salem, Nefzaoui, Abdouli, & Ørskov, ; Tegegne, Kijora, & Peters, ).…”

Nutritive Value, In Vitro Fermentation, and Methane Production of Cactus Cladodes, Sugarcane Bagasse, and Urea

“…The voluntary water intake was lesser due to the great moisture concentration of both cactus cladodes (881 g/kg on average) compared with TH (162 g/kg). Other studies with cactus cladodes reported decreased voluntary water intake by animals [ 28 , 29 ]. These reports demonstrated that cactus such as Opuntia or Nopalea are highly important to the water supply in semiarid regions, where water has low quality and limited quantity.…”