Studies of method of conserving grass herbage and frequency of feeding in cattle

Abstract

The influence of the method of conserving grass herbage and the frequency of feeding on eating behaviour, rumen motility and rumen fill was studied in growing steers. Silage and hay were offered to twelve rumen-cannulated Friesian steers (average initial live weight (LW) 128 kg) at a restricted level of intake (20 g dry matter (DM)/kg LW) either once or eight times daily. With once daily feeding, the daily intake of hay was consumed in a single large meal which lasted about 2 h, while silage was eaten in many small meals throughout the day. The proportion of the day spent ruminating was higher (0.39) for steers offered hay once daily than for those offered silage (0.28) or hay eight times per day (0.29). There was little effect of conservation method on frequency of rumen contraction, but contractile intensity (integration of frequency and amplitude) increased during the second half of the 24 h feeding cycle in steers offered hay either once daily or eight times daily, while the same effect was only observed when silage was offered once daily. Total daily contractile activity (the integration of the frequency and duration of myoelectric spike bursts) was significantly (P less than 0.05) higher in steers offered hay, compared with silage, once daily. The mean weight of organic matter in the reticulo-rumen of steers offered hay was significantly higher than for silage both with once (1593 v. 1326 g organic matter (OM)/100 kg LW, P less than 0.01) and eight (1367 v. 1160 g OM/100 kg LW, P less than 0.05) times daily feeding. The proportion of the particulate pool which was present as small (less than 1.2 mm) particles was always greater than 0.60.

Dairy cow performance and labour inputs associated with two silage feeding systems

“…, 2002) and forages (Woolford et al. , 1986; Ruiz and Mowat, 1987; Thiago et al. , 1992) within a 24‐h period, few studies have compared the effect of frequency of feeding over longer time intervals.…”

“…Separating out the potential impact on the performance of dairy cows of the different feeding frequencies, adopted in the current experiments, is difficult. While a number of studies have compared the effect of frequency of offering complete diets (Stanley and Morita, 1967;Nocek and Braund, 1985;Thivierge et al, 2002) and forages (Woolford et al, 1986;Ruiz and Mowat, 1987;Thiago et al, 1992) within a 24-h period, few studies have compared the effect of frequency of feeding over longer time intervals. In one exception (Phillips and Rind, 2001), daily complete diet feeding was compared with complete diet feeding on alternate days, with the latter associated with increased intakes and performance of dairy cows.…”

Effects of length of grazing session, rumen fill and starvation time before grazing on dry‐matter intake, ingestive behaviour and dry‐matter rumen pool sizes of grazing lactating dairy cows

“…The values observed in emptying 1 (average 11·59 kg DM approximately 20 g DM kg LW Ϫ1 ) were similar to the maximum values reported by Bosch (1991) when offering silage ad libitum and at the higher level of intake reported by Robinson et al (1987), but were lower than the values reported by Hartnell and Satter (1979), all measured in lactating dairy cows. However, rumen DM pool size after grazing (Table 2) was far below the maximum potential rumen capacity, indicating that the cows in this experiment stopped grazing or interrupted the first meal before their ruminal capacity was reached (Gill et al, 1988;Thiago et al, 1992;Van Vuuren, 1993).…”

Design and evaluation of a non-steady state rumen model

“…The values observed in emptying 1 (average 11·59 kg DM approximately 20 g DM kg LW Ϫ1 ) were similar to the maximum values reported by Bosch (1991) when offering silage ad libitum and at the higher level of intake reported by Robinson et al (1987), but were lower than the values reported by Hartnell and Satter (1979), all measured in lactating dairy cows. However, rumen DM pool size after grazing (Table 2) was far below the maximum potential rumen capacity, indicating that the cows in this experiment stopped grazing or interrupted the first meal before their ruminal capacity was reached (Gill et al, 1988;Thiago et al, 1992;Van Vuuren, 1993).…”