ABSTRACT
The aim of the present experiment was to investigate the effect of feeding level and type of roughage on feed intake, feeding behavior and competition of ewes. A 2 × 2 factorial experiment was conducted with amount of roughage available (ad libitum or semi restricted) and type of roughage (grass silage or hay) as main factors. Forty-eight ewes were randomly assigned to 8 groups of 6 ewes. All groups were subjected to all 4 treatments, each treatment period lasted 7 d, and the order of treatments was rotated systematically. The ewes were video recorded for the 2 last days of each treatment period and feeding and general activity were scored every 10 min. All aggressive interactions and displacement at the feed barrier were scored continuously the first 3 h after feeding. Daily feed intake (P < 0.0001) and DMI (P < 0.0001) were both greater in the silage than in the hay treatment. Ewes in the semi-restricted treatment spent less time feeding (P < 0.0001), had a greater individual variation in feeding time (P < 0.05) and spent more time queuing for feed (standing maximum 1.5 m from the feeding barrier with the head towards the feed; P < 0.0001). Individual data showed that 5 ewes fed hay and 3 ewes fed silage reduced their time spent feeding more than 50% when the feeding level was reduced. When fed hay, the level of feeding did not affect number of aggressive interactions or displacements, but when fed silage the number of aggressive interactions (P < 0.01) and the number of displacements (P < 0.05) were much greater in the semi-restricted than in the ad libitum treatment. We conclude that even a minor restriction in the level of feeding will decrease time spent feeding and increase queuing and number of aggressive interactions when feeding space is also restricted, and that the increase in aggressive interactions is mainly for ewes fed grass silage.
