Lamb feeding preference for maize, bean, and broad bean stubble treated with silage effluent, urea-molasses, or phosphoric acid

Abstract

molasses (MaUM), silage effluent with phosphoric acid (MaEflAcP), and control (MaTes); bean stubble treated with silage effluent (FrEfl), effluent silage with urea-molasses (FrEflUM), and control (FrTes); and broad bean stubble treated with silage effluent and urea-molasses (HaEflUM), urea-molasses and phosphoric acid (HaUMAcP), and control (HaTes). Design/Methodology/Approach: Six Dorper/Katahdin lambs of 21 kg (LW) were used to carry out the feeding preference test. In the morning, lambs were fed with a mixture of the three treatments of each stubble (70% of the dry matter (DM) requirement/40 min); meanwhile, in the evenings, they were offered each treatment in independent feeders (10% of the DM requirement/20 min). This treatment lasted 7 days. Intake was measured in grams (offer minus rejection). Once the ordinal qualitative variables of consumption frequency (1=low, 2=medium, and 3=high) were classified, the data were analyzed using the ordinal logistic regression model. The results were expressed as the estimated proportion of incidence of the frequencies (1, 2, or 3). Results: The proportion estimated for the high consumption frequency recorded higher results for MaUM, HaUMAcP, and FrEflUM, reaching 95.24, 73.44, and 43.49%, respectively. The proportion estimated for the low consumption frequency for HaTes, MaTes, and FrTes was 95.12, 88.11, and 48.77%, respectively. Study Limitations/Implications: The diets with different quality and flavors did not meet the assumptions of normality and homoscedasticity; however, the results provide valuable information for the improvement of dry matter intake and animal production. Finding/Conclusions: Urea-molasses (UM) promoted consumption preference both alone or in combination with other ingredients, in all the stubbles tested.