Lupin grain supplements for sheep and cattle.

Abstract

LUPIN GRAIN G.H. SUPPLEMENTS SMITH* and FOR P.A. SHEEP AND CATTLE KENNEY* SUMMARY Lupins is an ideal feedstuff for both sheep and cattle. It is completely safe to feed and it is rich in both protein and energy having a crude protein value of about 30% and a metabolizable energy value of 13-13.5 megajoules per kg of dry matter. an excellent supplementary feed and can be Lupins The feeding of effectively fed in a whole range of situations. lupins has produced significant responses in sheep and cattle in: * * * * * * Reproduction Fattening of slaughter stock Drought-feeding situations Milk production Weaner growth Wool production Added to this, lupins is easily handled and stored and is very resistant to damage by insects and other pests. It is a commodity that readily appreciates in market value if stored on the farm after harvest. This paper presents the findings from a range of experiments conducted at Rutherglen Research Institute, Victoria in which lupin g.rai.n has been fed to sheep and in ;I v a r i e t y 0 f s i t u a t. i o n s . cattle The Mediterranean- type c 1 i 111~1 t c o t' characterised by mild, wet winters end hot, d r y s u mm e r s . The period of 'summer drought' can last up to 6 months. predominant forage available to grazing sheep and cattle this period is dry, mature herbage from annual crops and This usually provides only a maintenance or pastures. sub-maintenance diet for grazing livestock. Sou t hc I 11 Aust 13 I i d i :; '1' 11 i? during During the dry period, farmers often feed supplements to either boost growth rates or reproductive performance of their Lupin grain has become popular for this purpose due livestock. increasing availability; high energy and protein to its: competitive price and convenience of handling and content; feeding. * Rutherglen and Rural Research Institute, Department Agriculture Affairs, Victoria 3685 72 An effective supplement for- livestock grazing abundant, dry forage is one that stimulates those st.ock to eat the f0rag.e - rather than substituting the supplement for the forage. Research at Rutherglen Research Institute has examined the influence of lupin grain fed to both sheep and cattle on the intake of poor qualty roughage. Other research has investigated the effect of lupin grain fed to sheep in a range of situations, such as: during the mating of ewes; to lambing ewes; ewes on drought rations; early-weaned lambs; lot-fed lambs. NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF LUPIN GRAIN The lupin grain used in all of the feeding research reported here was Lupinus angustifolius. A summary of the nutritional composition of Lupinus angustifolius is shown in Table 1. TABLE 1 Nutritional composition of (Lupinus angustifolius) lupin grain 73 LUPIN GRAIN - EFFECT ON ROUGHAGE INTAKE A series of experiments were conducted that examined the influence of lupin grain and various other supplements on the intake of poor quality, dry roughage by both young sheep, wethers and young cattle (Kenney, 1981; Smith, 1984; Smith and Warren, 1986). Re su 1 t s t: rwn t ha t work ( 'I'cl b I f\ ,! ) :;how t: st imulatcd both young sheep ad yo\mg cxt t. Hence the pcl-formance poor quality roughage. boosted by both the supplement and the extra However, lupin grain was not as effective in cottonseed meal supplements. The wethers were an exception trend was that the lupin supplement This could have been due to intake. requirements of those older sheep or of the roughage restricted total DM hir t. lupin grclin lc to C~~S~IIU~~ n~o~~t~ o 1` t 1~ stock ~~1s roughage consumcti. that role as to this pattern, where the substituted for roughage the lower protein that the low digestibility. intake. 74 `rnt31,i' 2 'Lnf luencc of supplements lambs and steers on rouyhqc iMake by 75 LUPIN LAMBING GRAIN - EFFECTS ON EWE REPRODUCTION, PERFORMANCE, LAMB SURVIVAL AND GROWTH Reproduction . The effect of lupin grain consumed by ewes during mating has clearly been responsible for reproduction responses when ewes were joined while grazing on lupin stubble, compared to This practice produced 24% more lambs per grazing dry pasture. year over 4 years of experimentation (Kenney and Roberts, The response was due to more twins being born rather 1987). The same research found that ewes than more ewes giving birth. fed 400 g/day lupin grain during mating on dry pasture performed at an intermediate level between the lupin stubble and the dry pasture-only treatments (Table 3). TABLE 3 Production of ewes grazing and without a lupin grain stubble or supplement pasture with Lambing ewes Lupin grain has been shown to be a more effective supplement than oats or wheat when fed to lambing ewes fed poor quality hay as the balance of their diet (Kenney and Roberts, 1984). In the results below (Table 4), lupin grain was clearly more effective than wheat, but no better than oats. However, oats tends to be a variable commodity in terms of both energy and protein contents, and the results when oats is fed, can vary accordingly. 76 TABLE 4 Production with poor of ewes and quality hay lambs fed grain supplements Drought-fed ewes Under drought-feeding conditions, the production of ewes fed oats or wheat as almost a total diet has been improved by replacing some of the cereal grain with lupin grain (Kenney, 1985; Kenney'and Smith, 1985). Maximum responses were achieved at an inclusion rate of about 30% lupin grain. Although responses for both wheat and oat diets were similar, the overall level of production of ewes fed the oat diet was higher than for the wheat diet (Table 5). TABLE 5 Production of lambing ewes f'od oats or without lupins, d u t- n g (1 I' 0 u g h t i OT wheat with 77 Early-weaned lambs Early-weaned lambs grow best on all-lupin diets, but the majority of that response can be obtained from including a proportion of lupin grain in cereal-based diets (Kenney, 1986). In contrast with adult animals, lambs grow better when fed with wheat than with oats and there is less effect of including However, when the lambs are lupins with wheat than with oats. provision of lupins in either wheat or oat diets may be poor I essential to reduce deaths. The most important effect of lupins is to increase intake rate and thus weight gains with a reduction in feed conversion ratios. TABLE 6 Effect of relative proportions of cereal and lupin grain fed to early-weaned lambs on the apparent DM digestibility intake and conversion of feed to carcase gain.' DISCUSSION The results presented in this paper demonstrate that t ht? production Of b 0 t h lupin grain can significantly 'I' h .i s sheep and cattle in a wide range 01: t' ~7 t? d i II g s i t u a t .i 0 n s . conclusion is supported by authors such as Rowe (1986) who claims that lupin grain is the most appropriate supplement for sheep grazing dry forage. One of the best opportunities for feeding lupin grain is before and during mating. This has been frequently shown to boost the fecundity of ewes in particular. Teleni et al, (1985) reported that feeding ewes a lupin supplement for 10 increased ovualtion rate. days before ovulation significantly That study showed that ovulation rate in ewes could be similarly increased by intravenous infusions of glucose, acetate, a mixture of glucose plus acetate and a supplement of 750 g/day of lupin grain. The work suggested that glucose was the principal nutrient supplied by the lupins to which ovulation rate responded. Rowe (1986) concluded that shortterm effects of nutrition on ovulation rate are mediated through pathways associated with the synthesis and/or utilization of glucose, but it was unclear what the pathways 78 were and whether other factors were involved. Hence, current opinion is that the effect of lupins on ovulation rate is due to its ability to provide energy (glucose) rather than amino acids for specific protein requirements. On the other hand, a wide range of pen and field experiments have shown significant advantages of feeding lupins, compared to cereal grains of comparable ME contents, to young sheep or cattle consuming poor quality dry forage. Such responses include liveweight gain, milk production, wool growth and feed conversion efficiency. The results suggest that the higher protein content of lupin grain is mainly responsible for the responses in those situations. There does not seem to be any conclusive evidence regarding the mechanism of the response in these situations. It could be due to a more efficient metabolism of the protein fraction of the lupin grain. Hume (1974) found that the protein in lupin meal is relatively soluble (quickly degraded) in the rumen. Hence it seems unlikely that responses to lupin- feeding are due to a bypass protein effect (protein being digested post-ruminally) unless a reasonable proportion of lupin grain particles get beyond the rumen when the grain is fed whole or only coarsely rolled (which are the common forms) rather than ground to a meal. REFERENCES HUME, KENNEY, KENNEY, I.D. P.A. P.A. (1974). (1981). (1985). (1986). Aust. Aust. Aust. Aust. 3. 7. J. J. G.B. Expt. Expt. Expt. b:spt. (1984). Agric. Agric. Agric. Agric. Aust. 25: 21: 25: 26: 3. 155. 480. 766. 279. Expt. Agric. KENNE:Y, P.A. KENNEY, P-A. and 24: 332. KENNEY, P.A. and 25: 529. KENNEY, ROBERTS, SMITH, R.S. (1985). Aust. J. Expt. Agric. P.A. and ROBERTS, (in press). (1986). (1986). (1984). WARREN, G.B. (1987). Aust. J. Expt. Agric. 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