Lamb feeding behavior and nutrient digestibility of high concentrate diets with different neutral detergent fiber sources

Two experiments were performed to determine the effects of replacing the neutral detergent fiber from sugarcane bagasse with soybean hulls neutral detergent fiber in high concentrate diets on lamb feeding behavior and apparent nutrient digestibility. In the first experiment, 60 ram lambs with 16.4 +/- 0.3 kg body weight and 67 +/- 2 days old were allotted to a complete randomized block design as a 2 x 2 + 1 factorial arrangement of treatments, consisting of two neutral detergent fiber sources (sugar cane bagasse or soybean hulls), two neutral detergent fiber levels (14 or 18%) and a control diet containing 100% concentrate. In the second experiment, five ram lambs were assigned to a 5 x 5 Latin square design and fed the same experimental diets as experiment one. Diets containing fiber sources increased dry matter, organic matter and neutral detergent fiber intakes and promoted longer feeding, ruminating and chewing times (minutes/day) compared to the diet containing 100% concentrate. The diets containing sugarcane bagasse increased rumination activity compared to those with soybean hulls as fiber source. However, diets containing soybean hulls showed lower chewing activity and greater nutrient digestibility compared to the sugarcane bagasse diets. Soybean hulls can be used as the sole source of additional neutral detergent fiber for lambs fed high concentrate diets.