Feeding sheep concentrate-based diets increases the oleic acid content of their tissues, whereas the cis-9, trans-11 conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) content is increased by feeding forage diets. Both these metabolic transformations could be attributable to increased activity of stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD). Therefore, the effect of forage or concentrate feeding regimens on the fatty acid compos...

Sixteen rams (mean age: 13 mo; mean live weight: 40.0 ± 2.4 kg) were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design (4 rams per treatment). Diets (dry matter basis) contained 65% concentrate and 35% alfalfa hay (control diet, T1), 35% wheat straw (T2), 35% barley straw (T3) or 35% maize straw (T4). Total-tract apparent digestibility for dry matter, organic matter...

The role of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) in explaining the less efficient utilization of metabolizable energy (ME) in growing lambs fed forage rather than concentrate-based diets was investigated by feeding forage (legume-grass silage) and concentrate (whole shelled maize) diets, at isoenergetic intakes (ME basis), using five groups of lambs. One group of seven lambs was an initial slaughte...

We used 28 crossbred wether lambs to determine the effects of dietary forage:concentrate ratio and metabolizable energy intake on visceral organ growth and oxidative capacity of gut tissues in lambs. Lambs were assigned randomly to a factorial arrangement of dietary treatments consisting of pelleted diets containing either 75% orchardgrass or 75% concentrate fed once daily at either .099 or .18...