Herbage intake and growth of rabbits under different pasture type, herbage allowance and quality conditions in organic production. (16th July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Legendre, H.; Goby, J.-P.; Duprat, A.; Gidenne, T.; Martin, G.
• Is Part Of: Animal. Volume 13:Number 3(2019)
• Page Start: 495
• Page End: 501
• Publication Date: 2018-07-16
• Subjects: rabbit, -- organic breeding, -- grazing, -- weight gain, -- herbage allowance; Animal breeding -- Periodicals; Animal genetics -- Periodicals; Animal nutrition -- Periodicals; Animal physiology -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Periodicals; 636.005
• DOI: 10.1017/S1751731118001775
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-7311

Abstract

Abstract : A lack of knowledge about rabbit herbage intake during grazing limits the development of organic rabbit production. This study describes rabbit herbage intake under a wide range of grazing conditions and characterises the factors that decrease rabbit herbage intake and daily weight gain. It was conducted with growing rabbits reared in moving cages with 0.4 m 2 of grazing area per rabbit. Rabbits grazed on pastures dominated by legumes (LEG) or grass and forbs (GRF) and received 60 g/day per rabbit of a complete pelleted feed. Three trials were performed in winter, summer and spring. Mean herbage allowance was 27% higher in LEG (62.3 g dry matter (DM)/kg metabolic weight (MW), equal to kg 0.75 ) than in GRF (49.2 g DM/kg MW). Herbage intake varied greatly (36.3±18.0 g DM/kg MW) among trials and was higher in LEG than in GRF (39.5 v .34.1 g DM/kg MW). For both pasture types, herbage intake was logarithmically related to herbage allowance and plateaued around 75 g DM/kg MW. Crude protein and digestible energy (DE) intake differed by pasture type and season. Mean CP intake was 40% higher in LEG (15.0 g/kg MW) than in GRF (10.7 g/kg MW). In summer, mean DE intake was 27% higher in LEG than in GRF but no significant differences in DE intake were found between LEG and GRF in winter and spring. Maximum DE intake plateaued near 1000 kJ/kg MW. Daily weight gain was always higher for rabbits grazing LEG (mean=22.6 g) than GRF (mean=16.0 g). Weight gain was significantly related to CP intake, whereas DE intake had no significant effect. Meeting the objective of mean daily weight gain of 20 g requires herbage intake of 32 and 50 g DM/kg MW in LEG and GRF, respectively. Therefore, according to the herbage use efficiency observed in our experiments, herbage allowance must reach 42 and 78 g DM/kg MW in LEG and GRF, respectively. When herbage allowance is lower, rabbits cannot meet the CP intake (13 g/kg MW) required for this weight gain objective.