Potential intake rate and acceptability of some common feeds by goats

摘要

Potential intake rate (PIR) of seven dried feeds, varying widely in nutritive value were measured by offering each feed alone to six hungry adult Barbari goats for eight separate periods. PIR ranged from 3.4 to 13.1 g/min, but within each forage,it varied non-significantly between goats or between measurements with the same goat. The PIR of a feed was more strongly correlated with its NDF/cell contents (R~2=0.87) than with ADF (R~2=0.41) or CP (R~2=0.37). The feeds were then offered in pairs in separate containers and preference for one forage compared to another was defined as the intake of that forage expressed as a percentage of total intake of both forages for 8 separate periods. In all comparisons goats, preferred the forge they can eat faster. Although, the mean preference for a forage over all comparisons was highly correlated with PIR (R~2 = 0.87), no significant correlation was evident between in vitro digestibility of drymatter and diet selected by goats.