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Objective This study investigated the effect of diet and roughage quality (RQ) on dry matter intake, duration and number of daytime and night-time eating bouts, idling sessions and ruminating activities in small ruminants. Methods In Exp 1 and 2, RQ was improved by urea treatment of veld hay, while diet quality was improved by supplementing with Lucerne hay (Exp 3), sunflower meal and lespedeza (Exp 4), fish meal (Exp 5a), and sunflower meal (Exp 5b). In all experiments goats and sheep were blocked by weight and randomly allocated to experimental diets. Day-time (06:00 to 18:00 h) and night time (18:00 to 06:00 h) feeding behaviour activities were recorded. Results RQ affected rumination index in Exp 1, but not in Exp 2, 3, and 5. Time spent eating and ruminating was affected by RQ (Exp 1, 3, and 4), period of day (all experiments) and their interaction (Exp 1). Intake rates (g/bout and g/min) were similar across diets. Period of day affected the duration of rumination sessions (Exp 1, 2, and 3); diet or RQ affected the duration of eating bouts (Exp 3) and rumination sessions (Exp 1 and 2). RQ had a significant effect on the duration of eating sessions in Exp 3 only, whilst period of day affected this same behaviour in Exp 2 and 3. Generally, goats and sheep fed on roughage alone ruminate at night and eat more during the day but those fed a roughage and supplemented with Lucerne hay spent more time ruminating than eating. Time spent eating and ruminating had positive correlations to crude protein and feed intake. Intake rates had strong positive correlations to intake. Conclusion Chewing time, number of eating and ruminating sessions, and duration of eating bouts are physiologically controlled in small ruminants, though chewing time requires isometric scaling during modelling of intake.

Objective This study ascertained effects of roughage quality, period of day at meal termination and time lapse after feeding on digesta load in the rumen. Methods Veld hay was untreated (poor roughage quality, PRQ), improved (improved roughage quality, IRQ) by treating with urea or semi-improved by spraying with urea (semi-improved roughage quality, SIRQ). Experiment 1a used four rumen fistulated sheep to determine in-sacco degradability. Twelve sheep (56.3±4.59 kg) were blocked by weight and randomly allocated to IRQ (n = 6) and PRQ (n = 6) to determine solid and liquid passage rates. In experiment 1b, nine sheep (37.6±9.34 kg) were blocked by weight and randomly allocated to IRQ (n = 4) and PRQ (n = 5) to determine digestibility. Sixteen sheep (36.47±9.46 kg) were blocked by body weight and randomly allocated to IRQ (n = 8) and PRQ (n = 8). Two sheep were slaughtered for each sampling time in each treatment (IRQ and PRQ) at 0, 6, 12, and 24 h after feeding to determine rumen load. In experiment 2, eighteen goats (25.4±9.08 kg) were blocked by weight and randomly allocated to IRQ (n = 6), SIRQ (n = 6), and PRQ (n = 6). Then all 18 goats were slaughtered soon after meal termination in the morning; afternoon and evening to determine the effect of period of day on rumen fill. Results Rate of degradation and effective degradability were enhanced by improvement of roughage quality. Roughage quality had no effect on digestibility, but digestibility was higher in goats than sheep. Fractional passage rate of particles was higher for IRQ than PRQ, but similar for liquids. Digesta fractional clearance rates at 24 h after feeding were 0.018/h (IRQ) and 0.006/h (PRQ). Period of day had an influence on rumen load. Neutral detergent fibre load for goats were above 2.03 kg/100 kg body weight for all diet treatments. Conclusion Following starvation, passage rate had negligible effects on emptying of rumen load.

Nematode resistance to anthelmintic drugs is affecting small ruminant production in South Africa. This study evaluated the effect of wattle tannins as an alternative nematode control drench. Two experiments (Exp) were conducted to determine the effect of tannin concentration (Exp 1) and frequency of dosing (Exp 2) on nematode parasites. In each experiment gender, egg count (egg per gram, EPG) and initial live weight aided in blocking sheep into groups, within which they were randomly allocated to and drenched with different tannin treatments. In experiment one, 24 sheep (16 females and 8 males, aged 8-9 months) were placed into four treatment: 0, 0.8, 1.6 and 2.4 g tannin/kg BW; they were drenched for three consecutive days in a study that lasted for 21 days. In Experiment 2, 26 sheep (11 males and 15 females aged 9 to 18 months) were placed into three treatments of 9, 9, and 8 sheep each. These treatments were drenched with 1.6 g tannins/kg BW/day for one day, two or three days for the three treatments, respectively. For the two experiments, EPG were counted and L3 larvae cultured and counted in individual feacal samples. In Exp one, for all tannin treatments, EPG decreased (P

The role of yeast supplementation in small ruminants on rumen fermentation, animal performance, and nematode control is still unclear. The effect of Celmanax® (yeast culture product) in two diets using lambs on body weight gain, rectal temperatures and nematode loads were monitored. 24 sheep (17 ± 2.8 kg BW), housed in individual pens, were divided into four treatments and fed on four basal diets; lucerne meal (LC), lucerne meal plus Celmanax® (LCC), sunflower meal (SF), and 4 sunflower meal plus Celmanax (SFC), for 96 days including 14 days adaptation. Dry matter intake, average body weight gain and feed conversion efficiency were calculated. Rectal temperatures and nematode egg count/gram (EPG) were measured once a week. Feed intake was higher (P < 0.05) in LCC and SFC than in LC and SF, respectively. Overall, weight gain was higher in SFC (P < 0.05) than SF. Feed conversion efficiency was higher (P < 0.05) in LCC than LC. Nematode EPG were lower (P < 0.05) in Celmanax® supplemented diets (LCC and SFC) than in their controls. Rectal temperatures dropped (P < 0.05) in Celmanax® diets. These findings suggest that, Celmanax® has the potential of improving animal performance and may be used in conjunction with other anthelmintics to control nematodes. Key words: Celmanax®, yeast, nematode, dry matter intake.