Influence of Forage Quality on Rumination Time in Sheep

Abstract
The effect of different forages on the rumination time in two groups of four rams was studied in 3 experiments. The test forages were fed to fasted rams in single equal dry matter meals and the rumination time recorded. Poor-quality roughage with high fibre and cell wall constituent content produced the greatest amount of rumination. Combining the mean rumination times for all 3 experiments, 1.05 min. rumination time was required for each gram of cell wall constituents (r=0.99) and 1.63 min. of rumination time was required for each gram of crude fiber ingested (r=0.99). Copyright © 1969. American Society of Animal Science . Copyright 1969 by American Society of Animal Science

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