Department of Extension Education, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana - 141 004, India.
The paper gives the information on the chewing behaviour of ruminants with particular reference to the chop length/particle size of the silage. Chewing time for a specific forage has been used to describe the physical property of fibrousness. The chop length and the particle size affect this index greatly. The chewing time per kg DM is generally lower on the short chopped than on the long chopped silages. This effect is more pronounced in late than early cut silage. The time spent on eating and ruminating on silages of different chop lengths/particle size, processing and silage supplemented with concentrates are also given.
