A note on the acceptance of several types of cereal grain by young sheep with and without prior experience of wheat

Abstract

ABSTRACTSixteen sheep which had previously eaten wheat only (eaters) were offered wheat, barley, oats and maize separately in a Latin-square design with two sheep per cell and two replicates of the Latin square. Another 16 sheep which had never previously been offered wheat (non-eaters) were offered the same cereal grains in two more Latin squares with two sheep per cell.The total intake of wheat for the eaters was significantly greater than for the other cereal grains (P < 0·01) and it took 7 to 9 days for other cereals to be eaten. There was virtually no consumption of cereal grains by the non-eaters until days 10 to 12 when some wheat but little other cereal was being eaten.The results indicate that sheep learn to eat each type of cereal grain separately but if they know how to eat wheat they learn to eat other cereal grains more rapidly.