The Effect of Varying Cattle Trough Height on Their Reach and Food Wastage

Abstract

Feeding cattle is an operational process where such factors as the size and range of the animals, the nature of the feed, the design and robustness of the feed barriers and troughs and the man doing the feeding task all contribute to its efficiency. In two trials reported here three types of feed barrier, dovetail, tombstone and diagonal, were compared and their troughs were varied in height. A previous trial (Petchey and Abdulkader, 1991) indicated that food wastage was significantly (P<0.05) greater from a post-and-rail barrier. The third trial was to examine the effect of varying the central rail and trough height on the efficiency of the post-and-rail barrier.Each of the experimental barriers was movable 2.7 m long and positioned across the front of the experimental pens. Each trough could be varied in height. The trials had a Latin square design. In trials 1 and 2 there were three Friesian heifers and two Hereford x Friesian cows in each group respectively. Trial 3 had three Friesian heifers in each group. The mean values for the nine heifers, six cows and nine heifers in trial 1,2 and 3 respectively are given in Table 1.