Comparison of Grass Silage and Whole Crop Fodder Beet Silage When Fed to Ewes in Late Pregnancy

Extract

The use of fodder beet in rations fed to cattle and sheep has always been valued highly. Recent long-term experiments have shown that the palatability and high feeding value of fodder beet is fully preserved during the ensiling process.The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the performance of ewes in late pregnancy when fed either whole crop fodderbeet silage or grass silage.

Mature (2-7 yrs), oestrous synchronised, twin bearing ewes (n=60) of mixed breeds (mainly Suffolk cross, greyface and halfbred), were selected following winter shearing and pregnancy scanning in December. At ten weeks prior to the predicted mean lambing date, the ewes were allocated to one of two treatment groups which were balanced for breed, age and liveweight. High quality precission chopped silage (DM 194 g/kg; CP 152 g/kg DM; in vivo ME 12.8 MJ/kg DM) and whole crop fodderbeet silage (WCFB)(DM 171 g/kg; CP126 g/kg DM; in vivo ME 11.7 MJ/kg DM) were fed in Tl and T2 respectively.