Voluntary Intake and Nutrient Digestibility of Forages by Goats and Sheep

Abstract

Numerous studies have compared intakes and digestibility of nutrients by goats or sheep to that by cattle in an attempt to determine if these smaller animals can be substituted for cattle when denning the nutritive value of feedstuffs. Various studies (Swift and Bratzler, 1959; Alexander et al., 1962; Donefer, 1966) have observed that the digestibility of forages was highly correlated between cattle and sheep. However, the protein content of forages resulted in variable patterns of digestibility between species (Alexander et al., 1962). The digestibility of protein and energy in low quality Coastal Bermudagrass hay was greater when fed to wethers than to mature beef cows. The reverse was observed with forages of higher protein content. Sheep were observed to be more variable, with lower digestibilities of DM, than steers fed prairie hays (Jordan and Staples, 1951). The goat has been implicated as a useful small ruminant for the evaluation of forages (Baumgardt et al., 1964). Copyright © 1972. American Society of Animal Science . Copyright 1972 by American Society of Animal Science.