Performance, ingestive behavior and cost of production of finishing lambs fed non-forage diets

ABSTRACT

The objective was to evaluate the effect of the use of a non-forage diet in feeding finished sheep in a feedlot regarding intake, nutrient digestibility, performance, ingestive behavior, and cost analysis with feed. The experiment was performed in a completely randomized complete block, with two treatments and eight blocks per treatment. The treatments were the control diet (30 of hay and 70% of concentrate, dry matter (DM) basis, normally used in the finishing system in Brazil) and the non-forage diet (100% concentrate). Animals fed non-forage diets had lower nutrient intake and metabolizable energy (ME) intake. Even though the animals that received a non-forage diet presented lower intake of DM, organic matter (OM), and crude protein (CP), there was no effect (p < 0.05) for the digestibility coefficients of these variables between diets. The time spent in rumination, total chewing, and idleness also decreased (p < 0.05) when lambs were fed a non-forage diet, due to the decreased DM intake. The profit margin value of US$10.395/animal reached by sheep fed the control diet was higher than the profit margin obtained by sheep that received the non-forage diet (US$−3.974/animal). The non-forage (pelleted) diet led to lower bio-economic performance, and its exclusive use in sheep finishing is not recommended.

KEYWORDS:

• Feeding behavior
• idle
• intake
• digestibility
• rumination

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to thanks the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) and the Maranhão Research and Scientific Development Foundation (FAPEMA) for their financial support.