Chemical composition, digestibility and intake of the main european forages

Abstract

This review summarizes the main results obtained, in France and Europe, on the chemical composition, digestibility and intake on sheep of the main forages species (grasses and legumes) and others forage plants (mais, others cereals, faba bean, pea, soya, kale...) as standing plants. The width of variation is considerable for green grasses and legumes (55 to 85 % for digestibility, 40 to 120 g DM/kg W^0.75 for intake). The digestibility and intake of a given forage species depend essentially on the stage of vegetation or the number of day of growth. They are reduced with the age of the forage, particularly during the first vegetation cycle and the stemmy regrowth. At a given stage of vegetation, differences between species exist, but the year or the place of study have no noticeable influence especially on the digestibility. The digestibility and intake of other forage plants are less variable with the stage of vegetation or maturity.