Effects of feeding lambs fresh versus dried Puccinellia tenuiflora (Griesb.) Scribn. & Merr. on water and nutrient intake and apparent digestibility

Abstract

The objective was to investigate effects of feeding lambs fresh versus dried Puccinellia. tenuiflora (Griesb.) Scribn. & Merr. on nutrient and water intake and apparent digestibility. Twenty-four lambs were offered fresh or dried (48 hr) grass. The dry matter (DM) content of fresh grass was 65% of dried grass and the neutral detergent fiber exclude ash (aNDFom) content of fresh grass was 87% of dried grass, whereas the metabolizable energy concentration of two forages was similar. Lambs eating fresh grass had higher (p <.05) DM intake (944 versus 837 g DM day−1 sheep−1), metabolizable energy intake (9.1 versus 7.9 MJ day-1sheep−1), and crude protein intake (86 versus 75 g day-1 sheep−1) than..