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Water-drinking frequency and quantity of water drunk by steers fed hay or fresh forage
Animal Feed Science and Technology, 25 (1989) 207-211 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam - - Printed in The Netherlands
207
Short C o m m u n i c a t i o n
Water-drinking Frequency and Quantity of Water D r u n k by Steers Fed Hay or Fresh Forage JUNJIRO SEKINE*, ZIRO MORITA*, RYOZO OURA* and YASUSHI ASAHIDA
Animal Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060 (Japan) (Received 6 January 1988; accepted for publication 7 October 1988)
ABSTRACT Sekine, J., Morita, Z., Oura, R. and Asahida, Y., 1989. Water-drinking frequency and quantity ot water drunk by steers fed hay or fresh forage. Anim. Feed Sci. Technol., 25: 207-211. To study the effect of moisture content of the diet on drinking behavior and the amount of water drunk, observations were made on eight Holstein steers fed either fresh cut forage or first cut hay. The observations were made in a barn with a mean temperature of about 13 °C. When hay was fed there was no significant day-to-day variation in drinking behavior. With fresh cut forage there were daily variations in moisture concentration and drinking behavior. Drinking occurred mainly within 3 h after feeding for the steers fed hay, while those fed soilage drank casually. Frequency of drinking (F) was related to the dry matter concentration [DMC (%) ] of herbage: F=0.47( + 0.09)DMC-6.5, SE-- +0.4, r=0.86, P<0.01 Intake of drinking water for each 100 kg of live weight (IDW per 100 kg) for steers fed soilage was related to the dry matter concentration: IDW per 100 kg=0.55 ( _+0 . 0 6 ) D M C - 8.7, S E = _+0.3, r=0.94, P < 0.01 The intake of water in each drinking period for animals fed fresh forage was curvilinearly related to the drinking frequency; for the hay-fed steers there was a negative linear relationship. When the drinking frequency for steers fed the fresh forage increased to the same as that observed for the hay, water intake in each drinking period was the same as found for the hay-fed steers. The frequency of drinking and the amount of water drunk by steers fed fresh forage approached the levels of those fed hay, as the dry matter concentration in soilage approached a certain range lower than that of hay.
INTRODUCTION D r i n k i n g w a t e r i n t a k e ( D W I ) o f l a c t a t i n g c o w s is a p p a r e n t l y d e p e n d e n t upon the type of forage ingested, when silage was given and whether it was hay, dried grass or straw (Castle and Thomas, 1975). The quantity of water drunk *Present address: Department of Veterinary Science, Tottori University, Tottori 680, Japan.
0377-8401/89/$03.50
© 1989 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.
208 was positively correlated with dry matter concentration (DMC) of a diet given to cows (Halley and Dougall, 1962; Castle and Thomas, 1975), but was not correlated with dry matter intake (DMI) {Castle and Thomas, 1975). Total water intake (TWI), however, was positively influenced by DMI (Castle and Thomas, 1975 ). Therefore, DWI may not satisfy the water requirement of animals given various types of forage. Grazing animals drank water on zero-four occasions each day (Hancock, 1953). The frequency of water drinking of cows given silage or dried grass varied from 2.6 to 7.0 occasions (Castle and Thomas, 1975 ). Thus, the DMC appeared to influence the drinking behavior of cows. King and Stockdale {1981) reported that lactating cows kept in a paddock maintained their milk production under restricted access to water in a Mediterranean-type climate. The reduced water intake to 90% of free access caused some changes in behavior of lactating cows, but little influenced milk yield, body weight and blood composition (Little et al., 1980). Thus, the availability and the amount of water supplied could be important in animal care. However, there have been few reports on the frequency and quantity of water drunk by steers. To obtain more information on water requirement of steers, the frequency of water drinking and its quantity were measured when steers were fed fresh cut grass or hay plus a small amount of concentrates. MATERIALSAND METHODS Eight Holstein steers (14-16 months of age) were randomly divided into two groups of four and fed first cut orchardgrass-red clover mixed hay (hay group) or fresh cut orchardgrass-red clover (fresh forage group); in addition, they were individually given 2 kg of concentrate. The fresh forage, first cut hay and concentrate contained 155, 92 and 182 g crude protein kg-1 DM, and 278, 378 and 90 g crude fiber kg-1 DM, respectively. The dry matter concentrations of first cut hay and concentrate were 837 and 846 g kg -1, respectively. The fresh forage contained 243 g DM kg- ~on average. The main observation period was 21 days with a 7-day preliminary period. The quantities of forage fed, and feed refusals taken back from the trough and weighed (weighbacks) were recorded for each steer daily. Moisture content of fresh forage and weighbacks was measured daily. Ambient temperature in the barn was recorded using an automatic recording hygrothermometer. Statistical analyses were made using the method described by Steel and Torrie (1960). The quantity of water drunk each day was recorded immediately before morning feeding using a drinking bowl equipped with a water meter. The drinking frequency was measured on Days 17, 19 and 21 of the experimental period, when amounts of water drunk by steers in the hay group appeared to be reasonably within the same range.
209
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Ambient temperature in the barn during the three observation days (Days 17, 19 and 21) averaged 13.2 (SD 1.10), 13.5 (SD 1.40) and 13.4 (SD 0.98) °C. Statistically significant differences were not observed in the mean ambient temperatures between the 3 days, but only a small fluctuation. The frequency of water drinking for 24 h showed no statistically significant difference among the individual steers on the same observation day within the group, although Steer 6 in the hay group tended to drink water less frequently than the other members of the group. Steer 6 drank water five, five and six times on Days 17, 19 and 21, respectively, while Steer 5 drank water 10, seven and 10 times on each observation day. Water-drinking periods of Steer 30 were 10, nine and 11 times and those of Steer 33, nine, nine and 11 times, respectively. Water-drinking periods of steers in the fresh forage group, however, varied significantly between observation days. They were one-three times on Day 17, four-seven on Day 19 and six-ten on Day 21. The quantities of water drunk by Steer 6 in the hay group were 39.1, 36.8 and 38.1 1 on the three observation days. Those of Steers 5, 30 and 33 were 37.1, 31.5 and 40.9 l, 36.9, 35.7 and 39.1 l, and 42.3, 48.6 and 45.6 l, respectively. The quantity of water drunk by steers in the hay group on each observation day was fairly close to the mean DWI of that group during the experimental period (Table 1 ). Steers in the hay group drank on average, 34.6 (SD 1.9), 34.5 (SD 1.9), 39.6 (SD 2.5) and 41.2 (SD 3.6) 1per day of water for Steers 5, 6, 30 and 33 for 3 weeks after the experimental period. Thus, the overall pattern of TABLE1 Quantity of water drunk, total water intake, dry matter intake and drinking water frequency by steers fed hay or fresh forage with 2 kg of concentrate Group
Fresh forage On day 17 On day 19 On day21 Pooled Experimentalperiod Hay pooled Experimentalperiod LNot measured.
Amount of water drunk Total (1) water intake (1)
Drinking frequency
Dry matter intake (kg per day )
Live weight (kg)
Daily
Per drinking period
Mean SD
Roughage
Total
Mean SD
Mean SD
Mean SD
Mean SD
Mean SD
4.3 19.5 24.7 16.2 17.1 39.4 39.1
1.7 3.8 3.3 3.0 4.8 -
6.5 10.2 8.2 8.4 7.5 7.2 7.0
8.3 12.0 10.0 10.2 9.3 9.0 8.8
3.3 2.3 3.4 9.5 8.8 4.6 4.8
0.8 0.6 1.1 1.2 1.3
Mean SD
34.6 49.0 45.9 43.2 42.1 40.3 40.3
5.0 2.4 4.5 7.4 6.3 4.4 4.8
2.3 5.3 7.8 5.1
0.9 1.2 2.0 2.7
8.5
2.2
0.4 0.1 1.0 1.6 1.3 0.7 0.9
0.4 0.1 1.0 1.6 1.3 0.7 0.9
-J
328 328 333 333
26 26 37 37
210
water drinking was inferred to be established for each steer in the hay group during the experimental period. The pattern of water drinking for 24 h for the hay group was analyzed using the moving average method with 3-h intervals. The drinking frequency of steers fed a hay diet concentrated on the 3 h from 1000 h, i.e. 1 h after morning feeding (0900 h) to 1300 h and those from 1600 h, i.e. 1 h before evening feeding (1700 h) to 1900 h. Drinking rarely occurred between 2300 and 0900 h when the steers were fed. This pattern was different from that of lactating cows observed by Castle and Thomas (1975). Table 1 shows the mean values with standard deviation of drinking frequency, DWI, the amount drunk per drinking period, TWI and DMI. The frequency of water drinking of the fresh forage group increased from 2.3 (SD 0.9) per day on Day 17 to 7.8 (SD 2.1 ) on Day 21. The DMC in fresh cut grass were 18.6, 25.3 and 30.2% for Days 17, 19 and 21, respectively. The number of drinking periods each day was positively correlated with the DMC in the forage (r = 0.86, P < 0.01 ). There was no correlation between the quantity of roughage dry matter ingested and the frequency of water drinking in fresh forage group. Thus, water drinking frequency appeared to be influenced by the DMC in a diet rather than DMI. Steers fed hay drank 39.4 1 per day of water on average over a 3-day observation and 39.1 1 per day on average over the experimental period. There was no significant difference in DWI among steers or between the 3-day observation and the experimental period for the hay group. Mean DMI for the 3-day observation was 9.0 (SD 0.7) kg per day which agreed well with the mean for the experimental period (8.8 + 0.9 ). There was no significant difference in mean TWI between the 3-day observation and the experimental period. Mean DWI supplied more than 97% of TWI for the hay group. Steers fed fresh forage drank 16.2 1 per day of water on average over the 3day observation and 17.1 1 per day on average over the experimental period. There was no significant difference in DWI between the 3-day observation and the experimental period. Mean DMI and TWI showed no significant difference between the 3-day observation and the experimental period. Mean DWI supplied about one-third of TWI. The contribution of DWI to TWI, however, varied from one-tenth to one-half of TWI with the fluctuation of DMC in fresh cut forage. Mean TWI of the fresh forage group, however, was not significantly different from that of the hay group. The quantity of water ingested kg -1 DMI (TWI/DMI) did not differ between both groups and was 4.6 1 kg -1 DMI on average for the experimental period in both groups. Thus, the quantity of water supply for the hay group depended upon DWI, while that for the fresh forage group varied with DMC in fresh cut grass. Therefore, it is concluded that steers fed a dry ration show a fairly stable waterdrinking frequency and totally depend upon drinking-water supply for their water requirement. While drinking-water supply for steers fed fresh cut forage
211
depends upon DMC in the forage, they require the same quantity of water as those fed a dry ration. In any case, steers should be supplied with water at 4.6 times DMI when mean ambient temperature is about 13 ° C. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors greatly appreciate the help of Dr. D.J. Minson at the CSIRO Cunningham Laboratory, for reviewing the manuscript.
REFERENCES Castle, M.E. and Thomas, T.P., 1975. The water intake of British Friesian cows on rations containing various forages. Anim. Prod., 20: 181-189. Halley, R.J. and Dougall, B.M., 1962. The feed intake and performance of dairy cows fed on cut grass. J. Dairy Res., 29: 241-248. Hancock, J., 1953. Grazing behavior of cattle. Anim. Breed. Abstr., 21: 1-13. King, K.R. and Stockdale, C.R., 1981. Milk yield of dairy cows given restricted access to water in a Mediterranean-type climate. Aust. J. Exp. Agric. Anim. Husb., 21: 167-171. Little, W., Collis, K.A., Gleed, P.T., Sanson, B.F., Allen, W.M. and Quick, A.J., 1980. Effect of reduced water intake by lactating dairy cows on behaviour, milk yield and blood composition. Vet. Rec., 106: 547-551. Steel, R.G.D. and Torrie, J.H., 1960. Principles and Procedures of Statistics. McGraw-Hill, NY, pp. 161 193
207
Short C o m m u n i c a t i o n
Water-drinking Frequency and Quantity of Water D r u n k by Steers Fed Hay or Fresh Forage JUNJIRO SEKINE*, ZIRO MORITA*, RYOZO OURA* and YASUSHI ASAHIDA
Animal Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060 (Japan) (Received 6 January 1988; accepted for publication 7 October 1988)
ABSTRACT Sekine, J., Morita, Z., Oura, R. and Asahida, Y., 1989. Water-drinking frequency and quantity ot water drunk by steers fed hay or fresh forage. Anim. Feed Sci. Technol., 25: 207-211. To study the effect of moisture content of the diet on drinking behavior and the amount of water drunk, observations were made on eight Holstein steers fed either fresh cut forage or first cut hay. The observations were made in a barn with a mean temperature of about 13 °C. When hay was fed there was no significant day-to-day variation in drinking behavior. With fresh cut forage there were daily variations in moisture concentration and drinking behavior. Drinking occurred mainly within 3 h after feeding for the steers fed hay, while those fed soilage drank casually. Frequency of drinking (F) was related to the dry matter concentration [DMC (%) ] of herbage: F=0.47( + 0.09)DMC-6.5, SE-- +0.4, r=0.86, P<0.01 Intake of drinking water for each 100 kg of live weight (IDW per 100 kg) for steers fed soilage was related to the dry matter concentration: IDW per 100 kg=0.55 ( _+0 . 0 6 ) D M C - 8.7, S E = _+0.3, r=0.94, P < 0.01 The intake of water in each drinking period for animals fed fresh forage was curvilinearly related to the drinking frequency; for the hay-fed steers there was a negative linear relationship. When the drinking frequency for steers fed the fresh forage increased to the same as that observed for the hay, water intake in each drinking period was the same as found for the hay-fed steers. The frequency of drinking and the amount of water drunk by steers fed fresh forage approached the levels of those fed hay, as the dry matter concentration in soilage approached a certain range lower than that of hay.
INTRODUCTION D r i n k i n g w a t e r i n t a k e ( D W I ) o f l a c t a t i n g c o w s is a p p a r e n t l y d e p e n d e n t upon the type of forage ingested, when silage was given and whether it was hay, dried grass or straw (Castle and Thomas, 1975). The quantity of water drunk *Present address: Department of Veterinary Science, Tottori University, Tottori 680, Japan.
0377-8401/89/$03.50
© 1989 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.
208 was positively correlated with dry matter concentration (DMC) of a diet given to cows (Halley and Dougall, 1962; Castle and Thomas, 1975), but was not correlated with dry matter intake (DMI) {Castle and Thomas, 1975). Total water intake (TWI), however, was positively influenced by DMI (Castle and Thomas, 1975 ). Therefore, DWI may not satisfy the water requirement of animals given various types of forage. Grazing animals drank water on zero-four occasions each day (Hancock, 1953). The frequency of water drinking of cows given silage or dried grass varied from 2.6 to 7.0 occasions (Castle and Thomas, 1975 ). Thus, the DMC appeared to influence the drinking behavior of cows. King and Stockdale {1981) reported that lactating cows kept in a paddock maintained their milk production under restricted access to water in a Mediterranean-type climate. The reduced water intake to 90% of free access caused some changes in behavior of lactating cows, but little influenced milk yield, body weight and blood composition (Little et al., 1980). Thus, the availability and the amount of water supplied could be important in animal care. However, there have been few reports on the frequency and quantity of water drunk by steers. To obtain more information on water requirement of steers, the frequency of water drinking and its quantity were measured when steers were fed fresh cut grass or hay plus a small amount of concentrates. MATERIALSAND METHODS Eight Holstein steers (14-16 months of age) were randomly divided into two groups of four and fed first cut orchardgrass-red clover mixed hay (hay group) or fresh cut orchardgrass-red clover (fresh forage group); in addition, they were individually given 2 kg of concentrate. The fresh forage, first cut hay and concentrate contained 155, 92 and 182 g crude protein kg-1 DM, and 278, 378 and 90 g crude fiber kg-1 DM, respectively. The dry matter concentrations of first cut hay and concentrate were 837 and 846 g kg -1, respectively. The fresh forage contained 243 g DM kg- ~on average. The main observation period was 21 days with a 7-day preliminary period. The quantities of forage fed, and feed refusals taken back from the trough and weighed (weighbacks) were recorded for each steer daily. Moisture content of fresh forage and weighbacks was measured daily. Ambient temperature in the barn was recorded using an automatic recording hygrothermometer. Statistical analyses were made using the method described by Steel and Torrie (1960). The quantity of water drunk each day was recorded immediately before morning feeding using a drinking bowl equipped with a water meter. The drinking frequency was measured on Days 17, 19 and 21 of the experimental period, when amounts of water drunk by steers in the hay group appeared to be reasonably within the same range.
209
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Ambient temperature in the barn during the three observation days (Days 17, 19 and 21) averaged 13.2 (SD 1.10), 13.5 (SD 1.40) and 13.4 (SD 0.98) °C. Statistically significant differences were not observed in the mean ambient temperatures between the 3 days, but only a small fluctuation. The frequency of water drinking for 24 h showed no statistically significant difference among the individual steers on the same observation day within the group, although Steer 6 in the hay group tended to drink water less frequently than the other members of the group. Steer 6 drank water five, five and six times on Days 17, 19 and 21, respectively, while Steer 5 drank water 10, seven and 10 times on each observation day. Water-drinking periods of Steer 30 were 10, nine and 11 times and those of Steer 33, nine, nine and 11 times, respectively. Water-drinking periods of steers in the fresh forage group, however, varied significantly between observation days. They were one-three times on Day 17, four-seven on Day 19 and six-ten on Day 21. The quantities of water drunk by Steer 6 in the hay group were 39.1, 36.8 and 38.1 1 on the three observation days. Those of Steers 5, 30 and 33 were 37.1, 31.5 and 40.9 l, 36.9, 35.7 and 39.1 l, and 42.3, 48.6 and 45.6 l, respectively. The quantity of water drunk by steers in the hay group on each observation day was fairly close to the mean DWI of that group during the experimental period (Table 1 ). Steers in the hay group drank on average, 34.6 (SD 1.9), 34.5 (SD 1.9), 39.6 (SD 2.5) and 41.2 (SD 3.6) 1per day of water for Steers 5, 6, 30 and 33 for 3 weeks after the experimental period. Thus, the overall pattern of TABLE1 Quantity of water drunk, total water intake, dry matter intake and drinking water frequency by steers fed hay or fresh forage with 2 kg of concentrate Group
Fresh forage On day 17 On day 19 On day21 Pooled Experimentalperiod Hay pooled Experimentalperiod LNot measured.
Amount of water drunk Total (1) water intake (1)
Drinking frequency
Dry matter intake (kg per day )
Live weight (kg)
Daily
Per drinking period
Mean SD
Roughage
Total
Mean SD
Mean SD
Mean SD
Mean SD
Mean SD
4.3 19.5 24.7 16.2 17.1 39.4 39.1
1.7 3.8 3.3 3.0 4.8 -
6.5 10.2 8.2 8.4 7.5 7.2 7.0
8.3 12.0 10.0 10.2 9.3 9.0 8.8
3.3 2.3 3.4 9.5 8.8 4.6 4.8
0.8 0.6 1.1 1.2 1.3
Mean SD
34.6 49.0 45.9 43.2 42.1 40.3 40.3
5.0 2.4 4.5 7.4 6.3 4.4 4.8
2.3 5.3 7.8 5.1
0.9 1.2 2.0 2.7
8.5
2.2
0.4 0.1 1.0 1.6 1.3 0.7 0.9
0.4 0.1 1.0 1.6 1.3 0.7 0.9
-J
328 328 333 333
26 26 37 37
210
water drinking was inferred to be established for each steer in the hay group during the experimental period. The pattern of water drinking for 24 h for the hay group was analyzed using the moving average method with 3-h intervals. The drinking frequency of steers fed a hay diet concentrated on the 3 h from 1000 h, i.e. 1 h after morning feeding (0900 h) to 1300 h and those from 1600 h, i.e. 1 h before evening feeding (1700 h) to 1900 h. Drinking rarely occurred between 2300 and 0900 h when the steers were fed. This pattern was different from that of lactating cows observed by Castle and Thomas (1975). Table 1 shows the mean values with standard deviation of drinking frequency, DWI, the amount drunk per drinking period, TWI and DMI. The frequency of water drinking of the fresh forage group increased from 2.3 (SD 0.9) per day on Day 17 to 7.8 (SD 2.1 ) on Day 21. The DMC in fresh cut grass were 18.6, 25.3 and 30.2% for Days 17, 19 and 21, respectively. The number of drinking periods each day was positively correlated with the DMC in the forage (r = 0.86, P < 0.01 ). There was no correlation between the quantity of roughage dry matter ingested and the frequency of water drinking in fresh forage group. Thus, water drinking frequency appeared to be influenced by the DMC in a diet rather than DMI. Steers fed hay drank 39.4 1 per day of water on average over a 3-day observation and 39.1 1 per day on average over the experimental period. There was no significant difference in DWI among steers or between the 3-day observation and the experimental period for the hay group. Mean DMI for the 3-day observation was 9.0 (SD 0.7) kg per day which agreed well with the mean for the experimental period (8.8 + 0.9 ). There was no significant difference in mean TWI between the 3-day observation and the experimental period. Mean DWI supplied more than 97% of TWI for the hay group. Steers fed fresh forage drank 16.2 1 per day of water on average over the 3day observation and 17.1 1 per day on average over the experimental period. There was no significant difference in DWI between the 3-day observation and the experimental period. Mean DMI and TWI showed no significant difference between the 3-day observation and the experimental period. Mean DWI supplied about one-third of TWI. The contribution of DWI to TWI, however, varied from one-tenth to one-half of TWI with the fluctuation of DMC in fresh cut forage. Mean TWI of the fresh forage group, however, was not significantly different from that of the hay group. The quantity of water ingested kg -1 DMI (TWI/DMI) did not differ between both groups and was 4.6 1 kg -1 DMI on average for the experimental period in both groups. Thus, the quantity of water supply for the hay group depended upon DWI, while that for the fresh forage group varied with DMC in fresh cut grass. Therefore, it is concluded that steers fed a dry ration show a fairly stable waterdrinking frequency and totally depend upon drinking-water supply for their water requirement. While drinking-water supply for steers fed fresh cut forage
211
depends upon DMC in the forage, they require the same quantity of water as those fed a dry ration. In any case, steers should be supplied with water at 4.6 times DMI when mean ambient temperature is about 13 ° C. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors greatly appreciate the help of Dr. D.J. Minson at the CSIRO Cunningham Laboratory, for reviewing the manuscript.
REFERENCES Castle, M.E. and Thomas, T.P., 1975. The water intake of British Friesian cows on rations containing various forages. Anim. Prod., 20: 181-189. Halley, R.J. and Dougall, B.M., 1962. The feed intake and performance of dairy cows fed on cut grass. J. Dairy Res., 29: 241-248. Hancock, J., 1953. Grazing behavior of cattle. Anim. Breed. Abstr., 21: 1-13. King, K.R. and Stockdale, C.R., 1981. Milk yield of dairy cows given restricted access to water in a Mediterranean-type climate. Aust. J. Exp. Agric. Anim. Husb., 21: 167-171. Little, W., Collis, K.A., Gleed, P.T., Sanson, B.F., Allen, W.M. and Quick, A.J., 1980. Effect of reduced water intake by lactating dairy cows on behaviour, milk yield and blood composition. Vet. Rec., 106: 547-551. Steel, R.G.D. and Torrie, J.H., 1960. Principles and Procedures of Statistics. McGraw-Hill, NY, pp. 161 193