EFFECTS OF MAIZE GRAIN ADDED IN A DIET BASED ON ALFALFA HAYLAGE ON THE RATION QUALITY IN WETHER SHEEP

Abstract

The objective of this experiment was to study the effects of interactions between alfalfa haylage (AH) and maize grain (MG) (5 vs. 10 g d-1 kg-1 body weight) on ad libitum intake, water intake and dry matter (DM) digestibility in wether sheep. The AH and MG contained 534.7 and 915.1g DM kg-1 fresh sample respectively, while crude protein (CP) concentration was 141 and 106.0 g kg-1DM. Adding of MG (5 or 10 g kg-1 body weight d-1) into AH based ration resulted in linear increase in diet DM intake (g kg-1 M0,75), linear decrease in water intake (P<0.01) and linear increase in diet DM digestibility (P<0,001). A positive associative response of MG supplementation to AH based ration was observed for DM intake (P<0.001) and DM digestibility (P<0.001). No improvements in DM intake were recorded with 10 g MG added kg-1 body weight d-1 in comparison with 5 g MG added kg-1 body weight d-1.

Keywords

• alfalfa haylage
• maize grain
• intake
• digestibility