COMPARISON OF FORAGE DIGESTION BY CATTLE AND HORSES

Abstract

Two trials compared digestion of Saskatchewan-grown hays by cattle and horses. In the first study, Altai wildrye (Leysum angustus Trin.), smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermus Leyss.), crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum L.), Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.), oat hay (Avena sativa L.) and reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinaceae L.) hays were fed to six beef steers and six crossbred geldings. The second study compared alfalfa hay (Medicago sativa L.) to dehydrated alfalfa pellets. Voluntary dry matter intake (VDMI) of hay by cattle was related to neutral detergent fiber content (R2 = 0.66). No single nutrient reliably predicted VDMI by horses. Cattle and horses had the highest VDMI for bromegrass hay in trial 1. Cattle had similar intakes of dehydrated alfalfa pellets and alfalfa hay, but horses ate 17% more (P < 0.05) hay than pellets. Cattle digested 28–82% more (P < 0.05) fiber from grass hays than horses which may account for their higher dry matter (DM) digestion of these hays. Cattle and horses utilized legume feeds similarly. Energy intakes of all animals exceeded maintenance except for cattle fed reed canarygrass hay. True crude protein digestibility and metabolic fecal protein of forage-fed cattle and horses were estimated at 83.4 and 80.3%, and 2.67 and 2.17 g 100 g−1 DM intake, respectively. Horses had higher true digestibilities of Ca (75%) than P (33%) but cattle digested more P (76%) than Ca (32%). Endogenous fecal Ca excretion for cattle and horses were assessed at 6.5 and 22.1 mg kg−1 body weight (BW), respectively, while endogenous fecal P excretions were 13.3 and 10.2 mg kg−1 BW, respectively. Key words: Horse, cattle, legume, grass, crude protein, fiber