The digestion of chopped and ground roughages by sheep. I. Movement of digesta through the stomach

Abstract

Digestion studies were conducted with lucerne hay and wheaten hay prepared for feeding either by chopping or by grinding and pelleting. The sheep were offered food every 3 hr. The rates of flow of water and the rumen volumes were measured by reference to a water-soluble marker.

The replacement of a diet of chopped roughage by an equal amount of ground roughage caused a decline in the rate of flow of water from the rumen. With wheaten hay this decreased flow was accompanied by a decline in rumen volume, the retention time of the marker in the rumen remaining constant; with lucerne hay the rumen volume remained constant and the retention time of the marker increased. When the quantity of ground roughage feed was increased, rates of flow from the rumen and abomasum were enhanced and marker retention time in the rumen decreased.

Under conditions of ad libitum feeding, the sheep consumed 75% more chopped lucerne hay than chopped wheaten hay; grinding was accompanied by an increase of 50% in the consumption of each hay. When levels of feeding were approximately 90% of the ad libitum intake, it was found that: (i) the rate of flow from the rumen appeared to be independent of diet and method of preparation of the feed; (ii) the rate of flow from the abomasum was higher with the ground roughage; (iii) rumen volume with ground lucerne hay was higher than with chopped lucerne hay or ground wheaten hay; it was also higher with chopped wheaten hay as compared with ground wheaten hay.

Sheep spent less time ruminating and eating when the roughages were ground. The amount of metabolizable energy available for production from 1000 g of ground lucerne hay was 950 kcal; it was calculated that this would have declined by 9% if the sheep ruminated for the same time on this ground hay as on the chopped hay.