A system for the trough feeding of supplements to grazing sheep

Abstract

An attempt was made to devise a new system of trough ,feeding a supplement to grazing sheep. A summer grazing experiment is described in which sheep were allotted to the following treatments :- 1. Dry pasture (control group). 2. Dry pasture, some of which was sprayed with a mixture of urea and molasses ( UM group). 3. Dry pasture supplemented with a home-made block (group A ) fed ad libitum. The block contained urea, molasses-yeast fermentation distillers solubles, common salt, and finely ground wheat grain. 4. Dry pasture supplemented with another home-made block of similar composition to that wed in group A except that it contained no urea (group B) fed ad libitum. Both blocks were prepared by pouring the food mixtures into a trough, spraying them with water, stirring, and allowing the resultant mass to settle. The mean body weight changes in each group between November 23, 1961, and March 27, 1962, were :-Control : -12.7 kg, UM : -7.0 kg, A : -2.5 kg, B : -2.6 kg. The differences between treatments were all statistically significant (P<0.001) except for the A and B treatments which were not significantly different from each other. There was no significant difference in wool production between the groups. The mean daily faecal dry matter outputs of six sheep in each treatment during the final week of a three week collection period, were :-Control : 454g, UM : 540g, A : 607g, B : 536g. These faecal outputs indicated that all three supplements stimulated grazing intakes.