A comparison of buckwheat, oats, and wheat for the maintenance of liveweight and wool production in sheep

Abstract

Merino wethers about 2 years old were confined in pens and fed, daily or weekly, maintenance rations of whole buckwheat, crushed buckwheat, whole wheat, or oats. All rations were supplemented with a small portion of pasture hay and minerals and were compared for acceptance, digestible energy (DE), and wool growth. The DE of the ration containing whole buckwheat was 13.1 MJ/kg DM and was 86.3% of the DE value of the wheat ration and 11% higher than that of oats, but the oats were below average Australian quality. Processing buckwheat increased faecal energy loss and reduced DE by 8%. During the first 10 days of feeding, the sheep fed weekly lost 75 day compared with a gain of 6 g/day for the daily-fed group, but thereafter liveweights remained fairly constant. This resulted in an overall difference (P<0.05) between weekly and daily feeding. Significantly (P<0.05) higher food refusals were obtained with weekly feeding, but there was no difference between grain types. Wool growth was similar for all grains and for daily and weekly feeding. It was concluded that buckwheat is a suitable grain for maintaining liveweight and wool production of sheep.