Frequency of feeding and form of lucerne hay as factors affecting voluntary intake, digestibility, feeding behaviour, and marker kinetics in ewes

The effects of the form (chopped or ground and pelleted) of a lucerne hay, and its frequency of feeding (once daily with restricted access, twice dail y, or once every 2 h) on voluntary intake, digestibility, feeding behaviour , and marker kinetics was studied on 12 Rasa Aragonesa ewe lambs. The resul ts showed that differences between animals fed twice daily or continuously were small and only found in intake and feeding behaviour, whereas feeding once daily with restricted access to the meal resulted in a much lower dry matter and digestible organic matter intake, which in turn affected signifi cantly both the feeding behaviour of the animals and the total mean retenti on time of liquid and solid markers, but did not influence digestibility co efficients. It is concluded that continuous feeding does not seem to be nec essary when studies on marker kinetics based on faecal marker excretion cur ves are carried out in sheep fed at intake levels close to ad libitum. Grin ding and pelleting resulted in a higher dry matter intake and a reduction i n organic matter digestibility, which resulted in a higher digestible organ ic matter intake. Feeding behaviour and rate of passage of Co-EDTA were als o affected, although Cr did not show any tendency to pass faster when attac hed to the pelleted diet.