EATING AND RUMINATION BEHAVIOUR IN SHEEP FED A HAY DIET WITH AN ORAL SUPPLEMENT OF UREA

The effect of orally supplemented urea on eating and rumination behaviour of sheep fed a low-quality hay was investigated in this study. Daily time spent eating was not influenced by ruminal addition of urea, thus the eating rate (g DM/min) also did not change with urea supplementation. The rumination appearance (the lag time after eating) tended to be shorted with urea supplement than without supplement, but not significantly (p>0.05). Daily time spent ruminating was in the range of 600-630 min/d, and rumination index (ruminating time/100 g DM ingested) was 85 min. on the average for all the treatments, but there were no significant differences among the values in each treatment. Daily number of rumination periods tended to be smaller with urea supplement than with no urea, but not significantly (p>0.05), and cyclic rate was almost constant in all the treatments. From these results, it may be concluded that an administration of urea in sheep receiving hay diet could have little effect on eating and rumination behaviour, when it was given at two times a day.