Nutritional manipulation of lamb growth and its effect on body composition and carcase quality
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The growth rate and body composition of lambs depend on their rate of feed intake and the composition of the feed given. The purpose of the experiment described here was to test predictions of the growth and composition of lambs given feeds of two protein contents at three levels of feeding. 73 Scottish Blackface wethers were abruptly weaned at 49 days of age and an average live weight (LW) of 18 (sd 2.2) kg. Six, chosen to cover the range in initial liveweight, were killed and those remaining were put into individual pens and fed in one of six ways. Two feeds with 140g CP/kg fresh weight (FW), called LP, and 220 g CP/kg FW, called HP, were used. They were formulated using barley, maize and soyabean meal, and hay at 150g/kg FW, and were calculated to yield 11.8 MJ ME/kg FW. Each feed was given ad libitum (AL) and at daily rates of 1.2 or 0.8 kg FW. The numbers of sheepstarted were: ALHP, n = 8; ALLP, n = 8; 1.2 HP, n = 12, 1.2 LP, n = 13, 0.8 HP, n = 14, 0.8 LP, n = 12. Sheep were killed from each treatment at 5 kg LW intervals from 25 to 50 kg. After slaughter the weights of gut-fill and organs were taken and the carcase physically dissected into lean, bone and fat. The chemical composition - dry matter and the ash, N, lipid and gross energy contents of the dry matter - of the whole empty body, excluding wool, was measured. Wool weights were determined. The intakes and weights of each sheep were measured twice weekly.Keywords:
Alfalfa hay
Untreated alfalfa hay and hay dusted with technical DDT were fed to 16 Holstein cows during 2 years DDT appeared in the milk within 4 days after the feeding of DDT-treated hay and the amount gradually increased until a fairly constant level was reached. More DDT was found in milk and tissues of cows that consumed hay treated with higher levels of DDT. DDT persisted in the milk for 4 months and disappeared approximately 6.5 months after feeding of DDT-treated hay was discontinued.
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A study is described in which the true digestibility of the phosphorus in alfalfa hay is determined using five lambs as experimental animals. It was found that an average of 88 percent of the fecal phosphorus of lambs fed alfalfa hay was of metabolic origin and 12 percent was undigested phosphorus from the hay. While the apparent digestibility of the phosphorus of the hay averaged 22 percent, the true digestibility was 91 percent, indicating that the phosphorus in the alfalfa hay used in this study was highly available for absorption by lambs.
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Tame mule deer and elk were fed fresh alfalfa hay at night and given various alternate forages during the day. This schedule, simulating farmland depredation feeding, yielded consumption values for field-growing alfalfa hay.
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The experiment was conducted in the Agricultural Research Station in the Jordan Valley to study the effect of replacing alfalfa hay by barley straw in Total Mixed Rations (TMR) for fattening Shami kids. Thirty two Shami goat kids with an average initial live weight ranging from 25 to 25.75 kg were used. The experiments lasted for 56 days. Animals were allocated randomly to four isocaloric and isonitrogenous total mixed ration treatments (T1, T2, T3 and T4) contained different levels of alfalfa hay and barley straw. Rations were formulated to meet the animal requirements and fed on ad libitum basis. In the first treatment, alfalfa hay was the main source of roughage while in the second and third treatments, alfalfa hay was replaced partially by barley straw. In the fourth treatment, barley straw was the main source of roughage and alfalfa hay was not used. Feed intake was measured daily while kids were weighed every two weeks. At the end of the two experiments, four kids from each treatment were assigned at random and slaughtered to measure the carcass characteristics.
Results showed that Voluntary Feed Intake (VFI) was numerically increased by low partial replacement of alfalfa hay but decreased with increased level of replacement of alfalfa hay in the diet with lowest value with complete replacement of alfalfa hay with barley straw (T4). No significant (P>0.05) differences were observed among treatments in average daily weight gains. Cold dressing percent ranged from 48.7 to 50.8% and the M. Longissimus area ranging from 101.6 to 134.9 mm, with no significant differences (P>0.05) between treatments.
Present findings indicate that alfalfa hay could be replaced successfully with wheat straw in the diets of finishing Shami kids without adversely affecting their growth performance or carcass characteristics.
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A feeding trial for investigating the optimal harvest time of alfalfa was conducted with 120hybrid rabbits divided into four groups. Animals were supplemented with grass hay, early maturestage (10% bloom) alfalfa hay, mid mature stage (50% bloom) alfalfa hay and full bloom maturestage alfalfa hay respectively on the basis of same concentrate fed ad libitum, housed in cages ofthree layers individually with clean and fresh water through automatic waterer. Per cage feedintake and health condition were monitored daily and weight gain was measured weekly duringgrowing period (33~54d) and fattening period (55~82d). The results showed that in the wholeperiod all groups had no statistical differences in average daily weight gain and live weight atslaughtering age. Alfalfa groups decreased more concentrate feed intake than grass group(p<0.01), with full bloom alfalfa hay having the most effect up to 20% and 6% during growingand fattening period respectively (p<0.01). Although there were no differences in the feedconversion efficiencies for all groups throughout experimental period, the concentrateconversion efficiencies in experimental groups were significantly higher than in the controlgroup. Among alfalfa hay groups, there were no significant differences in average daily gain,concentrate intake, but morbidity of full bloom alfalfa hay treatment reduced (p<0.05). Inconclusion, it is suggested that alfalfa should be harvested at full bloom mature stage to makehay for rabbits.
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