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Encouraging store lambs to eat barley straw at housing: Influence upon intake of pen to pen visibility and number of lambs per pen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2017

F.N.A. Odoi  and
E. Owen
F.N.A. Odoi
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture, University of Reading, Earley Gate, P.O. Box 236, Reading, BerksRG6 2AT
E. Owen
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture, University of Reading, Earley Gate, P.O. Box 236, Reading, BerksRG6 2AT
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Extract

Many trials at Reading have shown store lambs to be reluctant to eat straw when first housed after grazing. This is especially so if penned individually, as is often the case in feeding trials. Such isolation may induce stress, including depressed intake (Crampton, 1959; Kidwell, Bohman and Hunter, 1954). Farm animals are generally stimulated to eat more when in a group than when isolated (Curtis, 1983), yet most intake studies, particularly with sheep and cattle, are conducted with individually-penned animals. Concern for the welfare of animals being used for trials calls for systems of housing that minimise stress.

The present experiment tested the hypothesis that straw intake, by store lambs first-housed after grazing, would increase if lambs were penned in pairs rather than individually, or confined in pens allowing pen to pen vision rather than prohibiting pen to pen vision.

Type
Silage and Feeding Behaviour
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Production (1972) , Volume 1993: Winter meeting , March 1993 , pp. 144
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1993

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References

Crampton, E W 1959. Design for comparative feeding trials. In: Techniques and Procedures in Animal Production Research. American Society of Animal Production.Google Scholar
Curtis, S E 1983. In : Environmental management in animal agriculture. Iowa State University Press. 409 pp.Google Scholar
Kidwell, J F, Bohman, V R and Hunter, J E 1954. Individual and group feeding of experimental beef cattle as influenced by hay maturity. Journal of Animal Science 13 : 543–547 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kromann, R P. Finkner, M D and Sharp, J E 1971. Group feeding versus Individual feeding of lambs. Journal of Animal Science 32(3) : 549–553 CrossRefGoogle Scholar