Deswysen, A.G.
Dutilleul, P.
Fischer, V
Campbell, CP
The effects of five diets on nycterohemeral pattern of chewing behaviour were evaluated in 10 Hereford steers according to a replicated 5 x 5 Latin square design. Steers had ad libitum access to diets, fed once daily at 09:00 h and chewing behaviour was continuously measured for 4 d. Dietary treatments were: 1) traditional diet-80% pelleted concentrate (control) and 20% long timothy hay; 2) 80% control concentrate and 20% alfalfa cubes; 3) 90% control concentrate and 10% alfalfa cubes; 4) a completely pelleted diet with corn cobs; 5) 80% textured concentrate and 20% long timothy hay. Spectral analysis of hourly time spent either eating or ruminating was performed using the finite Fourier transform to decompose the 24-h total dispersion of chewing into 12 RC. Nycterohemeral patterns of time spent eating and ruminating different diets were mainly explained by RC 1, 2 and 3. RC 1 was relatively more important than the others in explaining total daily dispersion of time spent eating traditional completely pelleted with corn cobs and textured diets, while RC 1 and 3 presented similar relative importance for both alfalfa cube diets. Relative importance of RC 1 of time spent eating each diet was related positively to VI of diet DM (r = 0.88, P = 0.047) and NDF (r = 0.92, P = 0.027). Nycterohemeral eating and ruminating patterns of individual steers were mostly explained by RC 1, 2 and 3. Relative importance of RC 11 and 12 of time spent ruminating were related positively to VI by steers of DM (respectively, r 0.81, P = 0.004 and r = 0.63, P = 0.052) and NDF (respectively, r = 0.69, P = 0.027 and r = 0.67, P = 0.034). Overall, these relationships suggest that with once daily feeding of concentrate-based diets a larger VI is achieved with a more important one main nycterohemeral eating period associated to regular relative important two-hourly rumination periods, these latter are probably enhancing continuity of digesta flow and nutrients uptake.
Bibliographic reference |
Deswysen, A.G. ; Dutilleul, P. ; Fischer, V ; Campbell, CP. Quantitative analysis of nycterohemeral eating and ruminating patterns in beef cattle fed pelleted concentrates with or without supplemental roughage. In: Canadian Journal of Animal Science, Vol. 77, no. 3, p. 375-384 (1997) |
Permanent URL |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/45836 |