Abstract:

This study explored the effects feeding oat （Avena sativa） hay and oat cubes on the feeding behavior and production performance of Pengbo semi-fine wool sheep. Twelve Pengbo semi-fine wool sheep that were about 1 year old and had a similar body weight were randomly divided into two groups of six sheep （three male， three female）. One group was fed with unprocessed oat hay （OH， control）， and the other group was fed with oat cubes （OC）. Animals in the two groups were fed with a commercial concentrate at a rate of 0.10 kg·head^-1 per day in October， increasing to 0.26 kg·head^-1 per day in November. The experiment duration was 60 days， and consisted of a 10-day feed adaptation period and a 50-day formal experiment period. During the experiment， the feeding behavior， feed intake， and body weight of the two groups of sheep were measured. At the end of the experiment， all sheep were slaughtered to measure various performance indexes. The results showed that： 1） There was no significant difference in concentrate intake time between the two groups （P>0.05）， but the roughage and total feed intake time was significantly shorter in the OC group than in the OH group （P<0.001）. The feeding rate was significantly higher in the OC group （84.04%） than in the OH group （79.65%， P<0.001）. The feeding rate was significantly higher in October （85.29%） than in November （78.79%， P<0.001）. The rest time did not differ significantly between the two groups （P>0.05）， but the rumination time was longer in the OC group （581.25 min·d^-1） than in the OH group （506.67 min·d^-1； P<0.001）. The chewing rate， number of rumination boli， and rumination cycle did not differ significantly between the two groups （P>0.05）， but the number of rumination boli was significantly higher in October （558.50 No·d^-1） than in November （445.67 No·d^-1； P=0.009）. 2） Compared with the OH group， the OC group had higher intake of total dry matter， crude protein， and neutral and acid detergent fiber （P=0.001）. Season had a significant effect on the dry matter intake of the sheep （P<0.001）； for each 1 ℃ drop in air temperature， the dry matter intake of the sheep increased by 0.01 kg·d^-1 （R²=0.432， P=0.001）. 3） In terms of production performance， there was no significant difference between the two groups in the final weight， feed to weight ratio， and slaughter and carcass weights of sheep （P>0.05）， but the average daily weight gain was significantly higher in the OC group （117.50 g·d^-1） than in the OH group （98.77 g·d^-1； P=0.048）. These results showed that， compared with oat hay， oat cubes led to significantly prolonged rumination time， improved feeding efficiency， dry matter intake， and daily weight gain of Pengbo semi-fine wool sheep， although feeding with oat cubes did not significantly increase meat production. Overall， the feeding effect of oat cubes was superior to that of oat hay for these sheep.

Key words: oat, cube, forage processing method, ingestive behavior, growth performance