The aim of this work was to establish the response of growing sheep, goats and cattle to different nutritional environments. Data from 590 publications representing 2225 treatments were analysed. The results showed that each 10% increase in NDF was accompanied by 0.11 g/kg live weight (LW) and 0.32 g/kg metabolic live weight (LW0.75) decreases in DMI. Otherwise, the response of DMI to CP (CP%DM) content was curvilinear (P<0.01), without any significant difference in the slope between species. The percentage of concentrate (% CC) affected DMI curvilinearly, without any significant difference between species. This meta-analysis demonstrated the negative linear effect of NDF and the quadratic effect of CP concentration on organic matter digestibility (OMd). For growth performance, the three species responded curvilinearly to variations in metabolisable energy intake (MEI MJ/kg LW0.75) and digestible CP (DCPI g/kg LW0.75) intake (P<0.01). At the same level of MEI, average daily gain (ADG) varied with CP contents of the diet, and only the intercept differences were significant between the three levels (P=0.07). At the same level of DCPI, ADG varied with energy level (below maintenance (LE−−), 1 to 1.2×maintenance (LE−), 1.2 to 1.4× maintenance (ME+−), and >1.4, corresponding to maximum growth (HE+)). No significant difference was observed between LE−− and LE−, and no significant difference was observed between ME+− and HE+. For nitrogen balance, no difference was observed between species for a given level of nitrogen intake.

The objective of the study was to update energy and protein requirements of growing sheep, goats and cattle in warm areas through a meta-analysis study of 590 publications. Requirements were expressed on metabolic live weight (MLW=LW0.75) and LW1 basis. The maintenance requirements for energy were 542.64 and 631.26 kJ ME/kg LW0.75 for small ruminants and cattle, respectively, and the difference was significant (P<0.01). The corresponding requirement for 1 g gain was 24.3 kJ ME without any significant effect of species. Relative to LW0.75, there was no difference among genotypes intra-species in terms of ME requirement for maintenance and gain. However, small ruminants of warm and tropical climate appeared to have higher ME requirements for maintenance relative to live weight (LW) compared with temperate climate ones and cattle. Maintenance requirements for protein were estimated via two approaches. For these two methods, the data in which retained nitrogen (RN) was used cover the same range of variability of observations. The regression of digestible CP intake (DCPI, g/kg LW0.75) against RN (g/kg LW0.75) indicated that DCP requirements are significantly higher in sheep (3.36 g/kg LW0.75) than in goats (2.38 g/kg LW0.75), with cattle intermediate (2.81 g/kg LW0.75), without any significant difference in the quantity of DCPI/g retained CP (RCP) (40.43). Regressing metabolisable protein (MP) or minimal digestible protein in the intestine (PDImin) against RCP showed that there was no difference between species and genotypes, neither for the intercept (maintenance=3.51 g/kg LW0.75 for sheep and goat v. 4.35 for cattle) nor for the slope (growth=0.60 g MP/g RCP). The regression of DCP against ADG showed that DCP requirements did not differ among species or genotypes. These new feeding standards are derived from a wider range of nutritional conditions compared with existing feeding standards as they are based on a larger database. The standards seem to be more appropriate for ruminants in warm and tropical climates around the world.