Effect of frequency of feeding upon food utilization by ruminants.
01 Jan 1967-Vol. 26, Iss: 2, pp 181-190
About: The article was published on 1967-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 38 citations till now.
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TL;DR: Results with sheep supported the conclusions drawn from the results with cattle, and it was concluded that cattle should be fed at least four times daily to ensure maximum food efficiency for growth.
Abstract: An analysis of published data on the effects of feeding frequency on cattle gave the following results. On average, increasing feeding frequency increased average daily gain by 16·2±4·8%. The efficiency of growth was increased by 18·7±60·%, indicating that improvements in average daily gain were due largely to improvements in efficiency of food utilization. Much of the improvement in average daily gain and efficiency of food utilization was attributable to increasing feeding frequency from one or two meals per day to four, but there was some evidence of further improvement at higher feeding frequencies.In terms of experimentation it was concluded that, in general, nutritional or genetic comparisons of growth and efficiency should be carried out with a strict control of feeding frequency. In terms of animal production it was concluded that cattle should be fed at least four times daily to ensure maximum food efficiency for growth.The magnitude of the response of average daily gain to feeding frequency was dependent on several experimental variables. In particular, the response appeared to be greater when the level of average daily gain was low and when the level of concentrates was high. The variables examined seemed unable to account wholly for the differences in response found in different experiments. Predicting the magnitude of the response under defined experimental conditions therefore remains extremely difficult.Although rather more limited, results with sheep supported the conclusions drawn from the results with cattle.
32 citations
TL;DR: The data suggest that moving the timing of feed delivery resulted in cows consuming their feed more slowly in smaller, more frequent meals, contributing to an improvement in efficiency of production.
31 citations
TL;DR: Two lactation trials were conducted with Holstein cows to assess the effects of varying the feeding frequency of concentrates, addition of long hay, and the sequence of hay and grain feeding on performance, rumen fermentation and eating behavior.
Abstract: Two lactation trials were conducted with Holstein cows to assess the effects of varying the feeding frequency of concentrates, addition of long hay, and the sequence of hay and grain feeding on performance, rumen fermentation and eating behavior. Numbers of primiparous and multiparous cows assigned to repeated Latin square designs (4 × 4) were 8 and 12 for exp. 1 and 12 and 20 for exp. 2. Each experiment utilized four extra rumen-fistulated lactating cows to examine aspects of rumen metabolism. The four treatments applied in exp. 1 were (a) twice-daily feeding of concentrate, no hay; (b) thrice-daily feeding of concentrate, no hay; (c) hay offered 1 h before concentrate; and (d) hay offered 1 h after concentrate. Treatments in exp. 2 were similar, with the following exceptions: (b) concentrate six times daily; (c) hay 2 h before concentrate; and (d) hay 0.5 h after concentrate. In each treatment in both experiments, alfalfa silage was offered ad libitum. The average concentrate/forage ratio of the diets w...
25 citations
TL;DR: The saliva production response appeared to be determined through the effects of the time-period spent eating and amounts consumed, but other undetermined effects of feeding frequency contributed to the response.
Abstract: Total and unilateral parotid saliva production during eating were measured in response to offering sheep a fixed amount of lucerne ( Medicago sativa ) hay as one, two, four or eight meals. Total saliva measurements were obtained using sham-fed oesophageal-fistulated sheep. Unilateral parotid saliva was collected from sheep fitted with reversible re-entrant cannulas. Dry matter intakes and eating times were measured for each meal but were not constrained to particular values. Total and unilateral parotid saliva production during eating increased linearly with the log of the number of meals ( p = 0.0001). The amounts corresponding to one, two, four and eight meals of lucerne hay were 1553, 1737, 1851 and 2087 ml during total collections and 209, 248, 307 and 352 ml during unilateral parotid collections. The time-period spent eating and the amount of food consumed both increased as meal number increased. Total saliva collections when lucerne hay was sham-fed as one, two, four or eight meals were associated with eating times of 56.9, 57.4, 70.8 and 86.0 min and intakes of 562, 622, 629 and 638 g dry matter respectively. For unilateral parotid collections, eating times and dry matter intakes were 64.2, 71.3, 78.0, 82.1 min and 515, 579, 614 and 627 g for one, two, four and eight meals of lucerne hay respectively. The saliva production response appeared to be determined through the effects of the time-period spent eating and amounts consumed, but other undetermined effects of feeding frequency contributed to the response. The importance of meal duration on total saliva production was assessed by sham-feeding of 800 g lucerne as stem, leaf, hay, chopped hay or ground and pelleted hay. Increasing meal duration by feeding with stems resulted in the production of 1808 ml saliva, whereas the rapid consumption of pellets resulted in only 442 ml being produced.
23 citations
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TL;DR: It was concluded that the rumen ciliate protozoa are essential for the metabolism and growth of young lambs.
Abstract: A survey of the components of the rumen ciliate population in a series of adult sheep, raised in the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Alexandria, has shown that a mixture of Entodinium, Isotricha, Ophryoscolex, Diplodinium, and Polyplastron species was found in the rumen contents of Egyptian sheep; no Epidinium and a negligible number of Dasytricha ruminantium were also observed. The microbial population, reducing sugars, ammonia, volatile fatty acids (VFA) production, and growth rate of 14 lambs inoculated with whole rumen contents from a mature sheep were compared over a 6-month period with those of 13 lambs maintained under the same conditions, except that they were strictly isolated from other ruminants. Certain large oval organisms and large numbers of flagellates and Oscillospira were frequently observed in the rumen contents of the isolated lambs. The reducing sugars, ammonia, and VFA levels, measured before and at intervals after feeding, in the inoculated lambs showed a pronounced rise above the values found in the ciliate-free animals. The propionic acid-acetic acid ratio in the rumen contents of the faunated lambs was considerably higher than in the nonfaunated controls. The inoculated lambs grew faster than the isolated lambs. Differences in weight gain which ranged from 15 to 17% were statistically significant. The inoculated animals impressed the observers by their good appearance which was superior to that of the ciliate-free lambs. It was, therefore, concluded that the rumen ciliate protozoa are essential for the metabolism and growth of young lambs.
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