The effect of dietary energy concentration on protein utilization during late pregnancy in ewes

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Abstract
SUMMARY: From 62 days of gestation to parturition, 20 Finnish Landrace x Dorset Horn ewes were each offered one of four diets with roughage to concentrate ratios of 20:80; 40:60; 60:40 and 80:20, at daily metabolizable energy and digestible crude protein intakes of 490 kJ and 3·55 g/kg W0·75respectively. Plasma concentration of free fatty acids, glucose and urea were determined weekly, and nitrogen balance and digestibility trials were carried out at 70–80 and 130–140 days of gestation.On all treatments the concentration of plasma free fatty acids increased during pregnancy from approximately 200–600 μ-equiv./l and the concentration of glucose and urea decreased by approximately 25%.Digestibility coefficients for dry matter and organic matter increased from 58 to 68% and from 60 to 70% respectively as the proportion of concentrates in the diet increased and were not affected by stage of gestation. The apparent digestibility of nitrogen was not affected by the energy concentration of the diet.Between mid and late gestation there was a mean increase in daily nitrogen retention of 2·5 g and an improvement in the efficiency of nitrogen utilization of 19 percentage units.Nitrogen retention and the efficiency with which the apparently digested nitrogen intake was retained increased as the dietary energy concentration was increased. The mean daily increases in nitrogen retention were 0·0135 and 0·0039 g for each percentage unit increase in the concentrate portion of the diet at mid and late gestation respectively. The corresponding values for the improvement in the efficiency of nitrogen utilization were 0·13 and 0·10%.

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