Hurley MaryAnne, Lewis Eva, Beecher Marion, Garry Brian, Fleming Christina, Boland Tommy, Hennessy Deirdre
Teagasc, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, P61 P302 Co. Cork, Ireland.
School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, D04 V1W8 Dublin 4, Ireland.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Jan 26;11(2):306. doi: 10.3390/ani11020306.
Intake and digestibility are key drivers of animal production from grazed forage. The objective of this study was to compare the in vivo digestibility and voluntary dry matter (DM) intake of grass-only and grass-white clover (grass-clover) forage in individually housed sheep. This study was a Latin square design, repeated on three occasions in 2017: Spring (27 March-29 April), summer (19 June-22 July) and autumn (4 September-29 September). Grass-clover and grass-only swards were harvested daily and offered to 6 individually housed wether sheep per treatment per period. Digestibility of DM, organic matter (OM), neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) were determined using the total faecal collection method. Dry matter intake was not significantly different between treatments. White clover inclusion increased forage crude protein concentration in autumn ( < 0.001) and reduced NDF concentration in the offered forage ( < 0.001), increasing nitrogen intake per sheep in autumn ( < 0.001) and decreasing NDF intake per sheep in autumn ( < 0.001). Grass-clover swards had a significantly greater OM and DM digestibility compared to grass-only swards ( < 0.05). This could potentially result in increased animal production from grass-clover swards compared to grass-only swards.
采食和消化率是放牧草料动物生产的关键驱动因素。本研究的目的是比较单独饲养的绵羊对仅含禾本科牧草和禾本科-白三叶（禾本科-三叶草）牧草的体内消化率和自愿干物质（DM）摄入量。本研究采用拉丁方设计，于2017年分三次进行：春季（3月27日至4月29日）、夏季（6月19日至7月22日）和秋季（9月4日至9月29日）。每天收割禾本科-三叶草和仅含禾本科牧草的草皮，每个处理每个时期向6只单独饲养的阉羊提供。采用全粪收集法测定干物质（DM）、有机物（OM）、中性洗涤纤维（NDF）和酸性洗涤纤维（ADF）的消化率。各处理间干物质摄入量无显著差异。秋季添加白三叶提高了牧草粗蛋白浓度（<0.001），降低了所提供牧草的NDF浓度（<0.001），秋季每只绵羊的氮摄入量增加（<0.001），秋季每只绵羊的NDF摄入量减少（<0.001）。与仅含禾本科牧草的草皮相比，禾本科-三叶草草皮的OM和DM消化率显著更高（<0.05）。与仅含禾本科牧草的草皮相比，这可能会使禾本科-三叶草草皮的动物产量增加。
