Abstract
A study was conducted to determine whether silage can be used as an ingredient in the finishing rations of Merino lambs. One of the concerns regarding the use of silage as the main ingredient of a sheep feed is its high moisture and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) content and relatively poor protein value. Forty lambs, in a four-way completely randomized block design, were used in a 60-day finishing study. The diets consisted of a control with no silage and three diets containing, on a dry matter (DM) basis 20%, 50% or 70% maize silage. With the exception of fibre (NDF and acid detergent fibre), all diets were formulated on an iso-nutrient level. Dry matter intake (DMI) decreased as the silage inclusion increased. This resulted in significant differences between the cumulative intake of the low and the high silage diets. The 20% and 50% silage diets resulted in higher dressing percentage than the control and 70% silage diet. It was concluded that silage can be successfully incorporated into sheep diets and that optimal inclusion levels need to be quantified within high specification feedlot diets. Keywords: Feed intake, lamb growth, dressing percentage
Highlights
Forage conservation plays an important role in animal production systems in South Africa
All the diets were formulated on an iso-nutrient basis, with the exception of neutral detergent fibre (NDF) which varied with silage inclusion levels
The lambs on the 50% and 70% silage diet had a physical restriction due to the low dry matter (DM) content and the high NDF intake and were not able to reach the same DM intakes over the 60 day study period as the lambs on the control and 20% silage diets
Summary
Forage conservation plays an important role in animal production systems in South Africa. It is believed that livestock production, in developing countries, will have to double by 2020 to meet the ever-growing human population (Reddy et al, 2003). It is, of great importance for farmers to produce enough forage during the rainy season, to maximise production, and to have enough in reserve in case of a drought. Silage is widely used as cost effective source of roughage in dairy cattle nutrition in South Africa. It is, not that commonly used in sheep production systems. The aim of this study was to determine the URL: http://www.sasas.co.za ISSN 0375-1589 (print), ISSN 222-4062 (online) Publisher: South African Society for Animal Science
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