Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T01:03:05.706Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Updating maintenance energy requirement for the current sheep flocks and the associated effect of nutritional and animal factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2019

C. T. Yang Open the ORCID record for C. T. Yang [Opens in a new window] ,
C. M. Wang ,
Y. G. Zhao ,
T. B. Chen ,
A. Aubry ,
A. W. Gordon  and
T. Yan
C. T. Yang
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6DR, UK State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China
C. M. Wang
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6DR, UK State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China
Y. G. Zhao
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6DR, UK Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Haidian District, Beijing 100193, China
T. B. Chen
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6DR, UK Animal Breeding and Genetics Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Animal Science Academy, Chengdu 610066, China
A. Aubry
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6DR, UK
A. W. Gordon
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Newforge Lane, Belfast BT9 5PX, UK
T. Yan*
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6DR, UK
*
†E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

There is evidence indicating that using the current UK energy feeding system to ration the present sheep flocks may underestimate their nutrient requirements. The objective of the present study was to address this issue by developing updated maintenance energy requirements for the current sheep flocks and evaluating if these requirements were influenced by a range of dietary and animal factors. Data (n = 131) used were collated from five experiments with sheep (5 to 18 months old and 29.0 to 69.8 kg BW) undertaken at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute of the UK from 2013 to 2017. The trials were designed to evaluate the effects of dietary type, genotype, physiological stage and sex on nutrient utilization and energetic efficiencies. Energy intake and output data were measured in individual calorimeter chambers. Energy balance (Eg) was calculated as the difference between gross energy intake and a sum of fecal energy, urine energy, methane energy and heat production. Data were analysed using the restricted maximum likelihood analysis to develop the linear relationship between Eg or heat production and metabolizable energy (ME) intake, with the effects of a range of dietary and animal factors removed. The net energy (NEm) and ME (MEm) requirements for maintenance derived from the linear relationship between Eg and ME intake were 0.358 and 0.486 MJ/kg BW0.75, respectively, which are 40% to 53% higher than those recommended in energy feeding systems currently used to ration sheep in the USA and the UK. Further analysis of the current dataset revealed that concentrate supplement, sire type or physiological stage had no significant effect on the derived NEm values. However, female lambs had a significantly higher NEm (0.352 v. 0.306 or 0.288 MJ/kg BW0.75) or MEm (0.507 v. 0.441 or 0.415 MJ/kg BW0.75) than those for male or castrated lambs. The present results indicate that using present energy feeding systems in the UK developed over 40 years ago to ration the current sheep flocks could underestimate maintenance energy requirements. There is an urgent need to update these systems to reflect the higher metabolic rates of the current sheep flocks.

Keywords

calorimeter datalinear regressionmetabolizable energynet energycomparison
Type
Research Article
Information
animal , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , February 2020 , pp. 295 - 302
Copyright
© The Animal Consortium 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

a

These two authors are considered joint first author.

References

Agnew, RE and Yan, T 2000. Impact of recent research on energy feeding systems for dairy cattle. Livestock Production Science 66, 197–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC) 1993. Energy and protein requirements of ruminants. An advisory manual prepared by the AFRC Technical Committee on Responses to Nutrients. CAB International, Wallingford, UK.Google Scholar
Agricultural Research Council (ARC ) 1980. The nutrient requirements of ruminant livestock. Technical Review by an Agricultural Research Council Working Party, Common wealth Agricultural Bureau, Farnham Royal, UK.Google Scholar
Banks, RG 2003. The Australian prime lamb industry development program 1985–2003 – Coordinated investment in research, development, implementation and marketing, bringing an industry to life. Occasional paper for Meat and Livestock Australia, North Sydney, New South Wales, Australian.Google Scholar
Brouwer, E 1965. Report of the sub-committee on constants and factors. Proceedings of the 3rd symposium on energy metabolism of farm animals. European Association for Animal Production 11, 441–443.Google Scholar
Brown, DJ, Huisman, AE, Swan, AA, Graser, H-U, Woolaston, RR, Ball, AJ, Atkins, KD and Banks, RG 2007. Genetic evaluation for the Australian sheep industry. Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics 17, 187–194.Google Scholar
Bunger, L, Macfarlane, JM, Lambe, NR, Conington, J, McLean, KA, Moore, K, Glasbey, CA and Simm, G 2011. Use of X-ray computed tomography (CT) in UK sheep production and breeding. In CT scanning-techniques and applications (ed. Karuppasamy, S), pp. 329–331. INTECH Open access Publisher, Rijeka, Croatia.Google Scholar
Cárdenas, MJ, Duarte, AP, Mena, AD and Ramos, TO 2018. Requirements and energy efficiency of Pelibuey and Katahdin non pregnant, non lactating ewes in Yucatan, Mexico. Revista MVZ Córdoba 23, 6598–6606.Google Scholar
Chowdhury, SA and Ørskov, ER 1994. Implications of fasting on the energy metabolism and feed evaluation in ruminants. Journal of Animal and Feed Sciences 3, 161–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conington, J, Bishop, SC, Grundy, B, Waterhouse, A and Simm, G 2001. Multi-trait selection indexes for sustainable UK hill sheep production. Animal Science 73, 413–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costa, MRGF, Pereira, ES, Silva, AMA, Paulino, PVR, Mizubuti, IY, Pimentel, PG, Pinto, AP and Rocha Junior, JN 2013. Body composition and net energy and protein requirements of Morada Nova lambs. Small Ruminant Research 114, 206–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crouse, JD, Busboom, JR, Field, RA and Ferrell, CL 1981. The effects of breed, diet, sex, location and slaughter weight on lamb growth, carcass composition and meat flavor. Journal of Animal Science 53, 376–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawson, LER and Steen, RWJ 1998. Estimation of maintenance energy requirements of beef cattle and sheep. Journal of Agricultural Science 131, 477–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deng, K, Jiang, C, Tu, Y, Zhang, N, Liu, J, Ma, T, Zhao, Y, Xu, G and Diao, Q 2014. Energy requirements of Dorper crossbred ewe lambs. Journal of Animal Science 92, 2161–2169.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dong, LF, Ferris, CP, McDowell, DA and Yan, T 2015a. Effects of diet forage proportion on maintenance energy requirement and the efficiency of metabolizable energy use for lactation by lactating dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science 98, 8846–8855.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dong, LF, Yan, T, Ferris, CP and McDowell, DA 2015b. Comparison of maintenance energy requirement and energetic efficiency between lactating Holstein-Friesian and other groups of dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science 98, 1136–1144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferrell, CL, Koong, LJ and Nienaber, JA 1986. Effect of previous nutrition on body composition and maintenance energy costs of growing lambs. British Journal of Nutrition 56, 595–605.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Graham, NM, Searle, TW and Griffiths, DA 1974. Basal metabolic rate in lambs and young sheep. Australia Journal of Agricultural Research 25, 957–971.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jiao, HP, Yan, T, Wills, DA and McDowell, DA 2015. Maintenance energy requirements of young Holstein cattle from calorimetric measurements at 6, 12, 18, and 22 months of age. Livestock Science 178, 150–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koong, LJ, Ferrell, CL and Nienaber, JA 1985. Assessment of interrelationships among levels of intake and production, organ size and fasting heat production in growing animals. The Journal of Nutrition 115, 1383–1390.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marston, HR 1948. Energy transactions in the sheep I. The basal heat production and beat increment. Australian Journal of Biological Sciences 1, 93–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montossi, F, Font-i-Furnols, M, del Campo, M, San Julian, R, Brito, G and Sanudo, C 2013. Sustainable sheep production and consumer preference trends: compatibilities, contradictions, and unresolved dilemmas. Meat Science 95, 772–789.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) 2018. Feeding system for ruminant. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen, Netherlands.Google Scholar
National Research Council (NRC) 2007. Nutrient requirements of small ruminants: sheep, goats, cervids and new words camelids. The National Academy Press, Washington, DC, USA.Google Scholar
Noblet, J, Bernier, JF, Dubois, S, LeCozler, Y and VanMilgen, J 1998. Effect of breed and body weight on components of heat production in growing pigs. In Proceedings 14th Symposium on Energy Metabolism of Farm Animals, Newcastle, Northern Ireland, pp. 225–228. University Press, Cambridge, UK.Google Scholar
Reynolds, CK 1996. Nutritional requirements of the high genetic merit dairy cows: Constraints of feeding grasses and legumes. Grass and forage for cattle of high genetic merit. In Proceedings of British Grassland Society, 25–26 November 1996, pp. 7–15. British Grassland Society, Great Malvern, UK.Google Scholar
Rodrigues, RTS, Chizzotti, ML, Martins, SR, Silva, IF, Queiroz, MAA, Silva, TS, Busato, KC and Silva, AMA 2016. Energy and protein requirements of non-descript breed hair lambs of different sex classes in the semiarid region of Brazil. Tropical Animal Health and Production 48, 87–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salah, N, Sauvant, D and Archimede, H 2014. Nutritional requirements of sheep, goats and cattle in warm climates: A meta-analysis. Animal 8, 1439–1447.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Standing Committee on Agriculture (SCA) 1990. Feeding standards for Australian livestock-ruminants. CSIRO, Melbourne, Australia.Google Scholar
Steen, RWJ, Johnston, SD, Kilpatrick, DJ and Chestnutt, DMB 1998. Reponses in the growth of body components of finishing lambs to additional metabolizable energy supplied from either grass silage or concentrates. Animal Science 67, 503–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vargas, JFM, Martins, CF, Santos, PG, Ferreira, MB, Ricardo, HA, Leao, AG, Mendes, FAR and Teixeira, A 2014. The effect of sex and genotype on growth performance, feed efficiency, and carcass traits of local sheep group Pantaneiro and Texel or Santa Inês crossbred finished on feedlot. Tropical Animal Health and Production 46, 869–875.Google Scholar
Webster, AJF 1981. The energetic efficiency of metabolism. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 40, 121–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xue, B, Yan, T, Ferris, CF and Mayne, CS 2011. Milk production and energy efficiency of Holstein and Jersey-Holstein crossbred dairy cows offered diets containing grass silage. Journal of Dairy Science 94, 1455–1464.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yan, T, Gordon, FJ, Ferris, CP, Agnew, RE, Porter, MG and Patterson, DC 1997. The fasting heat production and effect of lactation on energy utilization by dairy cows offered forage-based diets. Livestock Production Science 52, 177–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, CT, Wang, CM, Zhao, YG, Aubry, A and Yan, T 2019. Is the maintenance energy requirement for current sheep flocks higher than recommended? In Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science, 9–11 April 2019, Edinburgh, pp. 15.Google Scholar
Zhao, YG, Aubry, A, O’Connell, NE, Annett, R and Yan, T 2015. Effects of breed, sex, and concentrate supplementation on digestibility, enteric methane emissions, and nitrogen utilization efficiency in growing lambs offered fresh grass. Journal of Animal Science 93, 5764–5773.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zou, CX, Lively, FO, Wylie, ARG and Yan, T 2016. Estimation of the maintenance energy requirements, methane emissions and nitrogen utilization efficiency of two suckler cow genotypes. Animal 10, 616–622.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed