Domestic cattle (Bos taurus taurus) are motivated to obtain forage and demonstrate contrafreeloading.

ABSTRACT: Domestic cattle (Bos taurus taurus) are adapted to digest high-roughage diets, but in confinement they are commonly fed low-roughage, high-energy diets. This practice may leave cattle with an unfulfilled need to consume forage. A way to quantify motivation is to require animals to work to access a resource. Using this method, we evaluated cattle motivation to obtain forage when fed high- or low-roughage diets during and 30 d before the study. Individual heifers were fed Sudan grass (Sorghum × drummondii) hay (high roughage, n = 6) or a diet with 12% forage (as fed, low roughage, n = 6) in an open feed trough. In a second trough, 200 g/d of Sudan grass hay were fed behind a push gate, to which additional weight was added daily until heifers no longer pushed. We predicted heifers would push

SUBMITTER: Van Os JMC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5841746 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature