FEEDING MANAGEMENT AND THE PERFORMANCE OF SHEEP IN SOUTHERN SINAI: 1. DIET SELECTION AND THE VOLUNTARY FOOD INTAKE OF EWES | ||||
| Journal of Animal and Poultry Production | ||||
| Article 13, Volume 30, Issue 12, December 2005, Page 7437-7456 PDF (5.9 MB) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jappmu.2005.238454 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Authors | ||||
| M. F.A. Farid,; H. S. Khamis; E. Y.A. Eid; A. Helal | ||||
| Animal Nutrition Department, Desert Research Centre, AI-Matareya, Cairo, Egypt. | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| An experiment was carried out to quantitatively characterize production and reproduction traits of local sheep in southern Sinai and to standardize the nutritional management of sheep flocks. Since the nutritional requirements of the local breeds are not known, it was empirical to study diet selection and voluntary food intake and its regulation during different stages of the production cycle. A total of 85 ewes in four groups were used. A control group was fed according to the NRC standards. Control rations were balanced using the same ingredients offered to the experimental groups. Ewes in the three experimental groups, group-housed in shaded pens, were offered one of three basal roughages; berseem hay, one-third berseem hay and rice straw, and rice straw with added molasses-urea feed mixture. Roughages were made available ad lib and comprised the sole ration during breeding and early pregnancy. A flushing concentrate was fed to all ewes including the controls before and during breeding at the rate of 200 g/day/ewe. As of the start of the late pregnancy period and up to the weaning of the offspring, the three experimental groups were offered, in separate feeders, ground corn grains and cottonseed meal to allow for free-choice intake. Group food intakes were recorded daily and live body weights biweekly. The hay-fed ewes were able to select diets that satisfied their energy and protein requirements during the different stages of the production cycle. The physical characteristics of the selected diets in terms of roughage and crude fibres percentages in the total DMI and the proportion of dietary protein that is potentially degradable in the rumen were practically the optimum. It appears that in those ewes voluntary food intake regulation was predominantly under the control of physiological factors to satisfy energy requirements. The physical limitation of the fill capacity was not a factor. The straw-fed groups, on the other hand, failed to control their intake as per their physiological needs. Their voluntary food intake was apparently under the control of physical rather than physiological factors, i.e. the limited fill capacity and the slow rates of degradation and passage of ingested material. The massive increase of Energy requirements during early lactation obliged the ewes to consume large quantities of corn grains. Consequently, their roughage and crude fibres intake was below physiological optimum and the rumen environment and microbial population as well as the host animal might have been adversely affected. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Feeding management; Diet selection; Food intake regulation; Sheep | ||||
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