Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the feeding behavior of sheep fed sugarcane silage enriched with increasing levels of detoxified castor bean meal. Twenty-four non-castrated male Santa Inês sheep with an average body weight of 25.34 kg and four months of age, were distributed in four treatments - 0, 7, 14 and 21% of the natural matter of detoxified castor bean meal in sugarcane silage. There was a linear increase (p < 0.05) in time spent eating and feeding and rumination efficiency (g MS and NDF/h) with the inclusion of castor bean meal in silage. However, there was a linear decreasing response for time spent resting (p < 0.05). Time spent ruminating, number of boluses per day and numbers of chews per day per bolus were not affected (p > 0.05) by the inclusion of castor bean meal. The addition of detoxified castor bean meal to sugarcane silage reduces time spent eating and increases feed and rumination efficiency in sheep.
Highlights
Sugarcane presents high yield per area (80 ton ha-1) and high soluble carbohydrate content (Schmidt et al, 2011)
The reduction of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) in the diet (41.4% to 30.1% NDF at the level of 0 and 21% detoxified castor bean meal (DCBM)) and replacement of natural sugarcane matter by DCBM (20.9 to 37% Dry matter (DM) of silage, at the level of 0% and 21% DCBM) resulted in a denser diet in which animals receiving higher levels of DCBM required less time to ingest the same amount of DM (Hübner et al, 2008)
Sheep ruminated for 533 min day-1 and this activity was not influenced (p > 0.05) by DCBM levels
Summary
Sugarcane presents high yield per area (80 ton ha-1) and high soluble carbohydrate content (Schmidt et al, 2011). Due to the low nutritive value of sugarcane silage and ensiling problems (Baliero Neto et al, 2009), the use of additives to reduce dry matter losses and to improve the chemical-bromatological composition of the silage is recommended (Amaral et al, 2009). Absorbent products such as meals with high content of dry matter and crude protein seem to be the most indicated additives (Santos, Magalhães, Conceição, Carvalho, & Ferreira, 2018). The detoxified castor bean meal presents 91.5 ± 0.3% dry matter, 11.1 ± 4.2% mineral matter, 35.2 ± 5.0% crude protein, 34.9 ± 7.0% neutral detergent insoluble fiber and 34.6 ± 7.9% acid detergent insoluble fiber (Oliveira et al, 2015; Ribeiro et al, 2014)
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