• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.607-616
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• 2003

This study was conducted to determine the effect of feeding a total mixed ration(TMR) of broiler litter(BL) and bakery by-product(BB) with additional BL or rice straw incorporated at 10% of dietary DM as a roughage source on behavior pattern, nutrient intake, digestibility, digestible nutrient intake, ruminal and blood parameters, and N balance of sheep. All the treatment diets were formulated to be isoenergetic[total digestible nutrients(TDN) 66.9%]. Compared with the conventional formulated feed - rice straw feeding system(control), feeding TMR with BL(T1) or rice straw(T2) at 10% of dietary DM resulted in reduced eating, ruminating and total chewing time(P<0.05), similar DM intake, low(P<0.05) digestible DM, OM, fiber and total nutrients intake, low(P<0.05) nutrients digestibilities except EE, similar ruminal characteristics(pH, VFA concentrations and ratios, efficiency of carbohydrate fermentation, NH3-N), and favorable N digestion and retention. There were no differences in the above parameters between T1 and T2 with the exception of increased(P<0.05) eating, ruminating and total chewing time for T2. These results suggested that a TMR of BL and BB with or without rice straw may replace the conventional formulated feed and rice straw in ruminant diets successfully and furthermore feeding the TMR with rice straw made sheep behavior pattern more favorable.