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Diet effect on the daily feeding behaviour, frequency and
characteristics of meals in dairy goats
*
´
J.A. Abijaoude, P. Morand-Fehr , J. Tessier, Ph. Schmidely, D. Sauvant
Laboratoire de Nutrition et Alimentation INRA de l’INAPG, 16 rue Claude Bernard, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
Abstract
An experiment of 433 weeks was carried out to analyse intake level and rate, number of meals and chewing activities of dairy goats. Four pairs of Alpine and Saanen goats in mid lactation were fed ad libitum four complete diets CR, CS, FR and FS in a Latin square design. Forage / concentrate ratio in these diets was low (C530 / 70) or high (F555 / 45) and starch, rapidly (R) or slowly (S) degradable in the rumen (barley and maize, respectively). The goats were housed in stalls and fitted with jaw movement recorders. Intake levels were also recorded over 4348 h. Diets were distributed twice daily. Total daily intake was significantly higher (P,0.01) on R diets (1200 g DM / day). Intake rates during main meals were 12.6, 12.2, 9.1 and 8.7 g / min, respectively, on CR, CS, FR and FS (P,0.05). The number of secondary meals decreased with the increase of forage content. Intake during secondary meals was 0.84, 0.88, 0.83 and 0.70 kg DM / day, respectively, on CR, CS, FR and FS. Chewing during eating and rumination depended on the type of diet (less than 740 min / day on C and more than 820 min / day on F: P,0.05). In conclusion, goats seem adapt their feeding behaviour to the kind of diet they receive.
2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Goat; Feeding behaviour; Meal frequency; Meal characteristics; Forage / concentrate ratio; Starch source
1. Introduction behaviour according to the type of diet they are fed,
to avoid digestive disorders. A complete understand-Feeding behaviour of goats is known on pasture ing of the feeding behaviour requires a thorough (Fedele et al., 1993) and rangelands (Bourbouze, study of its three main components: eating, ruminat-1980; Narjisse, 1991) better than in stalls (Morand- ing and idling. This has been widely done in sheep Fehr et al., 1991). A detailed knowledge of dairy and cows and we propose a similar study on stall-goat feeding behaviour in stalls is important, on one housed dairy goats.
hand, to improve their level of intake, which is the Daily feed intake can be described in terms of main factor limiting milk production, and on the number of meals consumed per day, length and size other hand, to establish whether goats can adapt their of meals and also rate of eating during meals. Rumination can be characterized by the number and duration of periods and also by the number of
*Corresponding author. Tel.:133-144-0817-57; fax:1
33-144-boluses.
0818-53.
E-mail address: [email protected] (P. Morand-Fehr) In general goats, like sheep and cows, eat during
two long periods per day called main (M) meals levels resulted in increased eating and rumination separated by several smaller meals called secondary times in cows. In goats, chewing time (min / g DM?
0.75
(Sc) meals. This occurs even with only one dis- kgW ) decreased as the level of intake increased tribution of feeds per day to pen-fed ruminants (Santini et al., 1992).
(Dulphy et al., 1990). Geoffroy (1974) with goats De Boever et al. (1990) reported that ruminating and sheep fed forage and silage diets, and Baumont time per unit of feed changes relatively a little up to et al. (1997) with sheep fed different kinds of a concentrate level of approximately 50% in the diet forages, found that daily intake is mainly determined of cows, but strongly increases with higher per-by the quantities ingested during the two M meals centages.
but Morand-Fehr et al. (1991) suggested that the Our objectives were to determine the effects of number of Sc meals is the most important factor forage / concentrate ratio and type of starch on the explaining intake differences between goats fed the feeding behaviour and chewing activities of stall-same forage diets. housed dairy goats in mid lactation using four
Intake rate was found to be responsible for most of experimental diets. the difference in daily intake and intake in M meals
of sheep fed various types of hay (Baumont et al.,
1997). Gill and Romney (1994) found a positive 2. Materials and methods
correlation between intake rate at the beginning of M
meals and daily intake in goats. Eight multiparous Alpine and Saanen dairy goats With a decreasing forage / concentrate ratio, eating in mid lactation (140 days postpartum, weighing time per unit of feed initially declines rapidly in 65.8610.9 kg with a mean milk yield at start of trial cows, but this trend slows down and can even of 2.260.6 kg / day) were used for a 12-week experi-reverse for diets which are exclusively made of ment. The eight goats, fitted with ruminal cannulae,
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concentrates (Bines and Davey, 1970; Remond, were housed individually in 231 m shaded pens 1972). For proportions of concentrates under 40%, with wooden floors. The goats were alloted in pairs. Dulphy et al. (1996) found that, in dairy cows, All goats had free access to water and to trace-chewing time per unit of feed can be considered as mineralized salt blocks.
constant. Bae et al. (1981) showed that increased hay They were offered four complete experimental
Table 1
Composition (% DM) and characteristics of the experimental diets offered to dairy goats
Diets
CR CS FR FS
Lucerne hay 15 15 27.5 27.5
Dehydrated lucerne 15 15 27.5 27.5
Pressed beet pulp silage 35 35 10 10
Barley 26 0 26 0
Maize 0 26 0 26
Soybean meal 8 8 8 8
Minerals 1 1 1 1
Dry matter (%) 45.5 45.0 45.2 46.2
Total crude protein (g / kg DM) 160 154 179 173
Organic matter (g / kg DM) 923 922 918 918
NDF (g / kg DM) 404 383 411 404
ADF (g / kg DM) 215 205 235 235
ADL (g / kg DM) 24 24 35 35
diets CR, CS, FR and FS (Table 1) which differed in ory. It is fixed on a U-shaped plastic base fastened forage / concentrate ratio: low (C530 / 70) or high by means of a harness to the back of the goats. With (F555 / 45), and starch source: rapidly (R) or slowly this system, the animals are, after a short period of (S) degradable in the rumen. Lucerne hay, used in adaptation, able to move easily without being dis-the diets, was chopped on a 5-cm screen and grains turbed or damaging the device. The animals carried of barley and maize were rolled. Water was added to the device only during the period of tests but the the high forage diets in order to have approximately basal part, the harness and the halter around the head the same DM content in all the experimental diets and muzzle throughout the experiment to eliminate (45%). The goats were fed ad libitum (refusals problems of adaptation each time recordings were always exceeded 10% of the distributed diet) in a made.
434 latin square design, every pair receiving one of Digestibility tests were conducted on eight other the four diets for a period of 3 weeks. These diets goats in metabolic crates in the same experimental were distributed twice daily at 08:00 and 17:00 h. conditions as those subjected to behavioural record-Refusals were discarded every morning and evening. ing.
M and Sc meals occurring after the first distribution Jaw movement recordings were divided into 1-h in the morning will be called day (D) meals and the intervals for analysis. The general model of analysis ones after the second distribution, in the evening and contained effects of diet (ai, 3 dF), animal (bj, 7 night will be called evening (E) meals. dF), period (xk, 3 dF)
As there is no uniform determination of the end of
meals, we fixed the end of M meals when a non- Y 5m 1 a 1 b 1 x 1E ijk i j k ijk ingestion period of at least 20 min began. This value
corresponded to the first smallest idling period
where Yijk5calculated variable, m 5overall mean encountered after diet distribution. Determination of
and Eijk5residual standard deviation used as the Sc meals limits was a little more difficult. We defined
error term. A Day / Evening effect (1 dF) was as Sc meal every intake exceeding 150 g and / or 5
occasionally added to this model. Data were ana-min of time.
lyzed using the GLM procedure of SAS (1996). The goats were offered a mixture of the four
experimental diets for 3 weeks before the onset of the experiment. During the first 10 days of each
period, the animals were adapted to the daily diet. 3. Results
The behavioural studies took place in the last part
of each period and consisted of a series of com- Components, chemical analysis and digestibilities puterized data recordings. We have adopted the of the four experimental diets are presented in Table
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method described by Abijaoude et al. (1999) to 1. The measured DM contents were similar among record manger weights and jaw movements continu- diets (around 45%) and so were the NDF values but ously for 48 h. Digital balances were fixed under the ADF and ADL were higher in F diets than in C diets. feed containers of four goats carrying the jaw Consequently, the OM digestibilities of FR and FS movement recorders in order to determine the intake were lower.
dynamics. Weights were transmitted to an adapted More than 2 kg DM were ingested daily by the electronic memorizer limited to four entries. The jaw goats (Table 2), significantly more with R than S
Table 2
Effects of the four experimental diets on intake and meal characteristics in dairy goats
c
Of neutral detergent fibre (kg / day) 0.89 0.79 0.90 0.83 0.06
Of acid detergent fibre (kg / day) 0.47 0.42 0.51 0.48 0.05
Main meals
a b a a
Total intake (kg DM / day) 1.36 1.17 1.36 1.36 0.08
b b a a
Total duration (min / day) 108 96 150 156 19
a a b b
Total intake (kg DM / day) 0.84 0.88 0.83 0.70 0.08
b b a a
Total duration (min / day) 204 194 328 278 30.8
a a b b
Intake rate (g DM / min) 4.1 4.5 2.5 2.5 0.3
b b a a
Eating time / unit of feed (min / gDM) 0.24 0.22 0.40 0.40 0.06
a
Means without a common superscript horizontally differ significantly (P,0.05). b
Means without a common superscript horizontally differ significantly (P,0.05). c
SEM: standard error of the mean. d
Intake rate 10 (30): intake rate at 10 (30) min after the beginning of the meal.
was however a negative correlation (r5 20.67, P, diets. R starch diets were ingested at a slightly higher 0.05, n532) between intake during M and Sc meals. rate than S starch diets regardless of the forage / The animal effect was always significant. concentrate ratio.The differences between diets in Mean intakes of the four diets during the four intake rate are significant at 10 min but nonsignific-periods (4348 h) are shown in Fig. 1. The two M ant at 30 min (Table 2).
meals occurred after the two diet distributions. Intake The significant decrease in intake in M meals kinetics varied among diets but the shapes of the when goats were fed CS, resulted from both a lower curves were similar for each diet after the two intake rate in the first 10 and 30 min of the meal, and distributions. Sc meals were more determinant in from a shorter meal duration but eating time per unit increasing intake in the case of diets rich in concen- of feed was not different at the same forage / concen-trate, especially at night where intake of high forage trate ratio.
Fig. 1. Mean intake of eight dairy goats fed four experimental diets during 4348 h.
in Sc meals were approximately half than those of F There were significantly more Sc meals in E than diets richer in forage. in D with CR: 1.3 meals. The number of Sc meals / h Significant differences between D and E parame- was significantly higher in D. Intake in Sc meals was ters were noticed among diets only with three significantly different between D and E except for parameters presented in Table 3: intake level corre- FS. The differences (E D) were bigger with C diets sponding to one M meal1all Sc meals before the than with F diets. These differences disappeared following M meal, number of Sc meals and intake in when the results were reported per hour and intake in Sc meals. Although nonsignificantly different, all the Sc meals became even higher in D than in E in the other parameters studied were also not evenly shared case of FS.
Table 3
Comparison of the day (D) and evening (E) effect in dairy goats fed four experimental diets (only where significant differences exist)
Diets
CR CS FR FS
d a b a b
Intake level D 1.04 0.91 1.01 0.96
a a a a
(kg DM) E 1.16 1.19 1.09 1.09
c
SEM 0.06 0.06 0.05 0.04
d a a a a
Intake level per hour D 115 102 112 107
b b b b
Means of D and E in one column without a common superscript differ significantly (P,0.05). b
Means of D and E in one column without a common superscript differ significantly (P,0.05). c
SEM: standard error of the mean. d
Intake level5intake in one main meal1all Sc meals before the following main meal. e
Intake in secondary meals.
Table 4
Chewing activities in dairy goats fed four experimental diets
c
Diets SEM
CR CS FR FS
ab b a ab
Chewing, min / day 739 639 896 823 57.3
ab b a ab
Eating, min / day 418 350 548 414 41.6
ab b ab a
Ruminating, min / day 321 289 348 409 30.5
d b b a a
Means without a common superscript horizontally differ significantly (P#0.05). b
Means without a common superscript horizontally differ significantly (P#0.05). c
SEM, standard error of the mean. d
CTU: chewing time per unit of feed, ETU: eating time per unit of feed, RTU: ruminating time per unit of feed.
Eating time on diet FR and ruminating time on feed were also higher when goats were fed F diets. diet FS were significantly longer than on diets CR Chewing and eating times per unit of R diets tended and CS. to be higher relatively to S diets but ruminating times
4. Discussion and conclusion same intake level of lucerne hay, goats spent more time eating and less time ruminating than sheep. Dietary behaviour of stall-housed goats differs a Baumont et al. (1997) found that more than 73% little from that of sheep. Goats generally have a of the total daily intake of sheep fed different hays lower intake rate because they have a more selective occurred in M meals. This was a little higher than in feeding behaviour. Dulphy et al. (1994) found that goats in this experiment and could be due to the diet DM intakes were similar in sheep and goats except composition or to the criteria chosen to determine the on low quality roughages where intakes by goats end of a M meal. The duration of M meals found by were higher (121%). Daily intakes obtained in this Dulphy et al. (1990) for goats was lower (68 min) experiment were similar to the ones found by than the durations we obtained — probably for the Morand-Fehr et al. (1980) when they offered com- same reasons. Differences in intake resulted from plete diets to dairy goats, and also to those of Lu differences in meal durations and intake rate. (1987). Mean intake rate in M meals was influenced by
Daily intake differed a little among the four the forage / concentrate ratio as was expected and, at experimental diets probably because the differences a lesser extent, by the type of starch. This could be between NDF contents of these diets were limited due to barley, component of the R diets, which could (Table 1) and the diet components were almost the be more palatable than maize, component of the S same. Similar results were obtained by Santini et al. diets and thus more rapidly ingested as observed by
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(1991) in goats fed diets with various forage / con- Abijaoude et al. (1997a). As shown by the results of centrate ratios and by McLeod and Smith (1989) in intake rate at 10 and 30 min, the low forage diets steers fed forages differing in fibre content. This were eaten more rapidly in the beginning of the meal differs from the results of Kawas et al. (1991) who and then eating rate declined, while goats ate the found that DM intake in goats increased with a high forage diets at a constant rate in the first 30 decrease in forage / concentrate ratio. min. This is probably due to the lower time needed Total time spent eating is highly variable, depend- to chew diets rich in concentrate and is confirmed by ing on feed quality, type and mode of feeding. With the lower eating and ruminating times obtained. diets composed of lucerne hay and concentrate, The mean number of meals per day (from 6.6 to offered twice a day, eating generally lasts 4 to 7 h 8.4 according to the diet eaten) was similar to the per day in goats (Morand-Fehr et al., 1991). Our value (8.1) obtained by Geoffroy (1974) in goats and results showed that eating time varied from 6 to 9 h higher than that (6.0) which he obtained in sheep. on the four experimental diets. Although unitary In our experiment, Sc meals were more numerous eating times differ, in general, more or less between and intake rates in these meals were higher on C than plant species, Baumont et al. (1997) found that the on F diets. This caused differences among diets type of hay did not significantly affect the time spent which let us suppose that discrimination between eating in sheep. Santini et al. (1992) reported that, in diets and regulation occurred more in Sc meals. CS dairy cows, total chewing times per day were not was the least ingested diet in M meals and the most significantly different with diets containing less than ingested in Sc meals maybe because the goats ate to 40% of concentrate. Our analyses showed that optimize the level of intake and limit the risks of feeding higher amounts of forage to dairy goats digestive disorders such as acidosis when diets were increased both eating and ruminating times. This is rich in concentrate (Giger-Reverdin and Sauvant, in agreement with the results obtained by Santini et 1991). This is as true as the number of meals al. (1991) on goats and with those of Dulphy et al. increases especially in the evening and night. So, (1996) who considered that chewing time per unit of goats probably do their best to spread intake through-feed increases when the proportion of concentrates out the day.
less hungry and take more time to choose. This was intake kinetics. This will probably help to clarify the not the case in M meals because they followed a new relationship between ruminal pH and intake rate, diet distribution. meal number or duration.
The differences (less than 7%) noticed between the eating times per unit of feed obtained with the
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