Livestock Production Science 64 2000 29–37 www.elsevier.com locate livprodsci
Diet effect on the daily feeding behaviour, frequency and characteristics of meals in dairy goats
´ J.A. Abijaoude, P. Morand-Fehr , J. Tessier, Ph. Schmidely, D. Sauvant
Laboratoire de Nutrition et Alimentation INRA de l ’INAPG, 16 rue Claude Bernard, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
Abstract
An experiment of 4 3 3 weeks was carried out to analyse intake level and rate, number of meals and chewing activities of dairy goats. Four pairs of Alpine and Saanen goats in mid lactation were fed ad libitum four complete diets CR, CS, FR and
FS in a Latin square design. Forage concentrate ratio in these diets was low C 5 30 70 or high F 5 55 45 and starch, rapidly R or slowly S degradable in the rumen barley and maize, respectively. The goats were housed in stalls and fitted
with jaw movement recorders. Intake levels were also recorded over 4 3 48 h. Diets were distributed twice daily. Total daily intake was significantly higher P , 0.01 on R diets 1 200 g DM day. Intake rates during main meals were 12.6, 12.2,
9.1 and 8.7 g min, respectively, on CR, CS, FR and FS P , 0.05. The number of secondary meals decreased with the increase of forage content. Intake during secondary meals was 0.84, 0.88, 0.83 and 0.70 kg DM day, respectively, on CR,
CS, FR and FS. Chewing during eating and rumination depended on the type of diet less than 740 min day on C and more than 820 min day on F: P , 0.05. In conclusion, goats seem adapt their feeding behaviour to the kind of diet they receive.
2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords : Goat; Feeding behaviour; Meal frequency; Meal characteristics; Forage concentrate ratio; Starch source
1. Introduction behaviour according to the type of diet they are fed,
to avoid digestive disorders. A complete understand- Feeding behaviour of goats is known on pasture
ing of the feeding behaviour requires a thorough Fedele et al., 1993 and rangelands Bourbouze,
study of its three main components: eating, ruminat- 1980; Narjisse, 1991 better than in stalls Morand-
ing and idling. This has been widely done in sheep Fehr et al., 1991. A detailed knowledge of dairy
and cows and we propose a similar study on stall- goat feeding behaviour in stalls is important, on one
housed dairy goats. hand, to improve their level of intake, which is the
Daily feed intake can be described in terms of main factor limiting milk production, and on the
number of meals consumed per day, length and size other hand, to establish whether goats can adapt their
of meals and also rate of eating during meals. Rumination can be characterized by the number and
duration of periods and also by the number of
Corresponding author. Tel.: 133-144-0817-57; fax: 133-144-
boluses.
0818-53. E-mail address
: morandinapg.inra.fr P. Morand-Fehr
In general goats, like sheep and cows, eat during
0301-6226 00 – see front matter
2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. P I I : S 0 3 0 1 - 6 2 2 6 0 0 0 0 1 7 3 - 1
´ 30
J .A. Abijaoude et al. Livestock Production Science 64 2000 29 –37
two long periods per day called main M meals levels resulted in increased eating and rumination
separated by several smaller meals called secondary times in cows. In goats, chewing time min g DM ?
0.75
Sc meals. This occurs even with only one dis- kgW
decreased as the level of intake increased tribution of feeds per day to pen-fed ruminants
Santini et al., 1992. Dulphy et al., 1990. Geoffroy 1974 with goats
De Boever et al. 1990 reported that ruminating and sheep fed forage and silage diets, and Baumont
time per unit of feed changes relatively a little up to et al. 1997 with sheep fed different kinds of
a concentrate level of approximately 50 in the diet forages, found that daily intake is mainly determined
of cows, but strongly increases with higher per- by the quantities ingested during the two M meals
centages. but Morand-Fehr et al. 1991 suggested that the
Our objectives were to determine the effects of number of Sc meals is the most important factor
forage concentrate ratio and type of starch on the explaining intake differences between goats fed the
feeding behaviour and chewing activities of stall- same forage diets.
housed dairy goats in mid lactation using four Intake rate was found to be responsible for most of
experimental diets. the difference in daily intake and intake in M meals
of sheep fed various types of hay Baumont et al., 1997. Gill and Romney 1994 found a positive
2. Materials and methods
