Different roughage: concentrate ratios in extruded feed, and feeding behavior of growing lambs

Animal performance is directly related to the food quality and intake.Analyzing feeding behavior is an important tool to evaluate diet efficiency.This study aims to evaluate the intake of dry matter, feeding behavior andruminal movement amongst lambs fed with extruded feed in differentroughage (R) : concentrate (C) ratios. An experiment was carried out in theExperimental Farm Capim Branco, Universidade Federal de Uberlandia,from December 7, 2016 to March 22, 2017. It involved 30 3-month-oldcrossbred lambs (Santa Ines x Dorper) with a mean weight of 20.67 ± 4.57kg allocated in collective stalls equipped with feeder, water fountain, saltshaker, and wooden slatted floor. The experiment was conducted in arandomized complete design with 2 treatments and 15 replicates pertreatment. The treatments consisted of roughage and concentrate extrudedand mixed in the following ratio 30R:70C and 70R:30C. The dry matterintake (DMI), 24-hour feeding behavior and 5-minute ruminal movementwere evaluated. The findings pointed to reduced DMI in relation to bodyweight for 30R:70C at the end of the experiment. Reduced rumination time,total chewing and ruminal movement were found for both ratios. However,shorter rumination time and total chewing had been recorded for 30R:70Cat the beginning of the experiment. Extruded feed with 70R:30C increasedrumination and total chewing and, consequently, ruminal movement.