The effect of animal species and level of consumption by cattle on in vivo digestibility of concentrate ingredients

Abstract

It has been suggested that cattle have a greater ability to digest fibrous feeds and a lower ability to digest non-fibrous feeds than sheep (Mc Donald et al., 1995). This statement applies mainly to forages and few direct comparisons have been conducted using concentrate ingredients. The digestibility of concentrate ingredients may be influenced by the level of consumption since an increase in intake of a complete diet resulted in a decrease in digestibility (El Khidir and Vestergaard Thomsen, 1983). The aims of this study were (a) to determine the effect of level of consumption by cattle and (b) to examine the effect of animal species (sheep and cattle) on the digestibility of concentrate ingredients.