• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.527-530
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• 1994

The effect of orally supplemented urea on eating and rumination behaviour of sheep fed a low-quality hay was investigated in this study. Daily time spent eating was not influenced by ruminal addition of urea, thus the eating rate (g DM/min) also did not change with urea supplementation. The rumination appearance (the lag time after eating) tended to be shorted with urea supplement than without supplement, but not significantly (p>0.05). Daily time spent ruminating was in the range of 600-630 min/d, and rumination index (ruminating time/100 g DM ingested) was 85 min. on the average for all the treatments, but there were no significant differences among the values in each treatment. Daily number of rumination periods tended to be smaller with urea supplement than with no urea, but not significantly (p>0.05), and cyclic rate was almost constant in all the treatments. From these results, it may be concluded that an administration of urea in sheep receiving hay diet could have little effect on eating and rumination behaviour, when it was given at two times a day.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.477-480
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• 1995

The effects of formic acid and formaldehyde treatment and methionine supplementation to ladino clover fibrous residue silage on eating and rumination behaviour were studied in sheep. From the ladino clover fibrous residue, two silage were prepared, either untreated or treated with formic acid and formaldehyde. Four experimental diets: untreated silage, treated silage, untreated silage with supplementation of methionine and treated silage with supplementation of methionine, were offered to four sheep at a restricted level of DM intake (2% of BW/d) twice daily in a two-way layout design. Methionine supplementation with the treated silage significantly (p < 0.05) reduced daily time spent eating, and consequently, markedly increased rate of eating. However, there was little effect of methionine supplementation on the daily time spent eating and eating rate for sheep offered untreated silage. Methionine supplementation with the treated silage reduced daily time spent ruminating, although the same effect was not observed for untreated silage. The rumination index (time spent ruminating/100 g DM eaten) was remarkably smaller (p < 0.05) with methionine supplement in feeding treated silage, although it did not differ for sheep offered untreated silage. There were no clear effect of methionine supplementation on the rumination efficiency (i.e. number of chews/bolus, bolus time and rumination chewing rate) both feeding untreated silage and treated silage.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 1991

An experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of change in length of hay offered on eating and rumination behaviour in sheep using three types of hay diets (L: long, M: 8.0-cm cut, S: 1.2-cm cut) and 3 Japanese Corriedale wethers, and the experiment was designed as $3{\times}3$ latine square. The time spent eating per 100 g hay was significantly shorter with long (L) hay (p < 0.05) than with chopped (M and S) hay, and therefore, the eating rate (g D.M./min.) was significantly higher in the former (p < 0.05) than in the latter. Rumination appearance (the lag time after eating) tended to be longer with long hay than with chopped hay, but not significantly (p > 0.05). Daily time spent ruminating, the actual chewing time and daily number of chews tended to be more in feeding long hay than in feeding chopped hay, but not significantly. Daily number of rumination periods was significantly more with long hay (p < 0.01) than with chopped hay. Cyclic rate tended to be longer with long hay than with chopped hay, in particular, the difference in values between long hay and 8.0-cm cut hay was significant statistically (p < 0.01). The rumination index (time spent ruminating/100 g D.M, eaten) tended to be higher with long hay than with chopped hay, and the difference in values between long hay and 1.2-cm cut hay was significant statistically (p < 0.05). Bolus time was significantly longer with long hay (p < 0.01) than that with 8.0-cm cut hay. The circadian pattern of ruminating time was not changed by the changes in length of hay eaten.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.187-193
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• 1990

In the present experiment, the relationship between rumination and the amount of roughage eaten by sheep was investigated in detail. Daily time spent eating was obviously changed along with an increase or decrease in daily hay intake. Daily time spent ruminating and daily number of boli regurgitated was also linearly increased or decreased with an increase or decrease of daily hay intake, and there were regression lines between daily amount of hay eaten and daily ruminating time or daily number of boli with statistical significant coefficients. Cyclic rate (total rumination time(s)/number of boli regurgitated) and daily number of rumination periods did not change in an outline along with the changes in daily hay intake. From these results, it can be suggested that daily dry matter intake by sheep could be presumed by measuring daily time spent ruminating when they were fed only roughage feed.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.1040-1048
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• 1999

Four ruminally fistulated crossbred $(Sahiwal{\times}Holstein\;Friesan)$ adult (~6 yr.) cattle of about $318{\pm}16kg$ body weight were randomly assigned in an experiment based on $4{\times}4$ latin square design to study the effect of different level of barseem (Trifolium alexendrinum) supplementation to wheat straw based diet on intake, digestion, VFA production, eating behaviour and passage rate. Four dietary treatments were wheat straw ad lib. (I), supplementation to wheat either 15(II), 30(III) or 45(IV)% of berseem. Mean total volatile fatty acids (TVFA) concentration in rumen liquor was 58.45, 66.14, 77.92 and 78.64 mmol/l. TVFA concentration in rumen liquor increased significantly (p<0.01) with increased level of berseem supplementation upon 30% level of breseem. Two peaks of TVFA concentration was observed at 4 and 8 h post feeding. Brseem supplementation showed no significant effect on daily time spent for eating, ruminating or idling, chews per minute or number of rumination boli ingested per minute. Time spent for eating and ruminating one kg neutral detergent fibre (NDF) was significantly (p<0.05) less in breseem supplemented groups. Animals in groups I, II, III and IV consumed 26, 34, 47 and 57% of DM within 1st 4 h and 64, 70, 70 and 77% of total DM within 1st 8 h of offering. All the animals consumed more than 90% of their DMI within 12 h. Active period of rumination was observed 8h post feeding reached the peak at 16 h post feeding, then declined and animals spend considerable time idling in last 4 h of 24 h feeding cycle. Berseem supplementation showed no significant effect on eating and rumination time. It is concluded that berseem supplementation upon 30% increases the efficiency of chewing during eating and rumination, which results in increase intake and TVFA production and nutrient digestibility.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.675-690
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• 2019

Objective: This study investigated the effect of diet and roughage quality (RQ) on dry matter intake, duration and number of daytime and night-time eating bouts, idling sessions and ruminating activities in small ruminants. Methods: In Exp 1 and 2, RQ was improved by urea treatment of veld hay, while diet quality was improved by supplementing with Lucerne hay (Exp 3), sunflower meal and lespedeza (Exp 4), fish meal (Exp 5a), and sunflower meal (Exp 5b). In all experiments goats and sheep were blocked by weight and randomly allocated to experimental diets. Day-time (06:00 to 18:00 h) and night time (18:00 to 06:00 h) feeding behaviour activities were recorded. Results: RQ affected rumination index in Exp 1, but not in Exp 2, 3, and 5. Time spent eating and ruminating was affected by RQ (Exp 1, 3, and 4), period of day (all experiments) and their interaction (Exp 1). Intake rates (g/bout and g/min) were similar across diets. Period of day affected the duration of rumination sessions (Exp 1, 2, and 3); diet or RQ affected the duration of eating bouts (Exp 3) and rumination sessions (Exp 1 and 2). RQ had a significant effect on the duration of eating sessions in Exp 3 only, whilst period of day affected this same behaviour in Exp 2 and 3. Generally, goats and sheep fed on roughage alone ruminate at night and eat more during the day but those fed a roughage and supplemented with Lucerne hay spent more time ruminating than eating. Time spent eating and ruminating had positive correlations to crude protein and feed intake. Intake rates had strong positive correlations to intake. Conclusion: Chewing time, number of eating and ruminating sessions, and duration of eating bouts are physiologically controlled in small ruminants, though chewing time requires isometric scaling during modelling of intake.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.516-517
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• 1989

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.68-76
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• 1988

The variation of rumination response in steers fed a same amount of orcharugrass hay was investigated. With three steers (6, 12, 24 months) of the Japanese Black Breed, rumination behaviour was measured continuously during a 5 days period by masseter EMG telemetry system. The results are summarized as follows: 1. The average daily rumination time of respective animals were 438,447 and 433 min. with small daily variation both within and among animal. But the rumination time per DM kg of hay consumed varied from 66 to 138 min., and calf spent longer than older calf. 2. Actural chewing time showed small variation, and percentage of actural chewing time spent in rumination time was from 88 to 93% on individual average. 3. The daily number of chewing in rumination was approximately 25,000 to 30,000 with large individual differences. The chews per DM kg intake varied from 3,800 to 9,600, and calf chewed more than older calf. 4. The average rate of chewing per 100 sec. (chewing speed), there was a large difference between animals i.e. 104, 114, 131 respectively, but very little variance between days in individual. 5. No relation between day to day variations in eating time and rumination behavior, but significantly positive correlation was observed in the relation among rumination time, chewing time, No. of boluses and No. of chews. 6. Active time of day in rumination altered considerably day to day, but variation in the amount of rumination per day as expressed by the rumination time was relatively small.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.68-76
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• 1988

The variation of rumination response in steers fed a same amount of orcharograss hay was investigated. With three steers (6, 12, 24 months) of the Japanese Black Breed, rumination behaviour was measured continuously during a 5 days period by masseter EMG telemetry system. The results are summarized as follows: 1. The average daily ruminatio time of respective animals were 438,447 and 433 min. with small daily variation both within and among animal. But the rumination time per DM kg of hay consumed varied from 66 to 138 min., and calf spent longer than older calf. 2. Actural chewing time showed small variation, and percentage of actural chewing time spent in rumination time was from 88 to 93% on individual average. 3. The daily number of chewing in rumination was approximately 25,000 to 30,000 with large individual differences. The chews per DM kg intake varied from 3,800 to 9,600, and calf chewed more than older calf. 4. The average rate of chewing per 100 sec. (chewing speed), there was a large difference between animals I.e. 104, 114, 131 respectively, but very little variance between days in individual. 5. No relation between day to day variations in eating time and rumination behavior, but significantly positive correlation was observed in the relation among rumination time, chewing time, No. of boluses and No. of chews. 6. Active time of day in rumination altered considerably day to day, but variation in the amount of rumination per day as expressed by the rumination time was relatively small.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.161-168
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• 2002

A behavioral investigation in deer equipped with EMG telemetry system was carried out to examine the chewing behavior pattern for efficient feeding management of Korean spotted deer(Cervus nippon). There was more frequent and irregular eating and rumination behavior pattern in deer than those in other ruminants. Time spent on eating and ruminating was 261 and 291 min., respectively. Total number of boli regurgitated was 647 times per a day and deer regurgitated an average boil of 21.6 times per a rumination period. Total rumination time was 291 min. and deer have an average rumination time of 26.9 sec. per a boli. Deer had 245.3 min. for total chewing time, 20,405 times fur number of chews, 31.5 times for number of chews per bolus, and 53.4 times for number of chews per minute during rumination period. An average regurgitation bolus an hour was lower with 15.3 numbers in the 09∼15 hours subperiod and higher with 26 numbers in the 15∼21 hours subperiod and it had been gradually trended to become to low after 15∼21 hours subperiod. An average numbers of chews a bolus at every 6 hours subperiod increased gradually according to time. A deer spent 23.3 min. on eating and 26.2 min. on ruminating per 100g ingested dry matter. Consequently, since deer have a different chewing behavioral pattern to other ruminants such as more frequent and irregular eating and ruminating patterns, small bolus and low number of chew, it is likely to needed to establishment and development efficient feeding system for deer.