In ruminants given a roughage filled diet, their rumination behaviour appears to be influenced by the changes of amount of daily ration, and also by the physical and chemical properties of feed. Likewise, the changes in rumination behaviour would obviously relate to the utilization of roughage feed.
In the series of experiments on the utilization of silages made from the fibrous residues left after the extraction of leaf protein concentrates of legumes in sheep, it has been reported that the time spent eating and ruminating with the silages were fairly lesser than those with orchardgrass and timothy hays, when used as a roughage and it was found to be equal in food value. Furthermore, it has also been reported, on the bas is of eating and rumination behaviour in sheep, that the nutritive value of dried fibrous residues from legume plants should be a little superior to that of the same fibrous residues after ensiling.
In this paper, the eating and rumination behaviour in sheep fed with the dried fibrous residues left after the extraction of leaf protein concentrates of oat and Italian-ryegrass are discussed in relation to the utilization of the residues as a roughage feed.The data was obtained from the sheep in the experiment described by Fujihara and Ohshima.