Influencia del clima y de la calidad de los forrajes en su consumo

Abstract

A discussion is presented relating the importance of ambient temperature and nutritional plane on the problems of heat tolerance. The literature is in agreement that the animal on full feed has greater problems of disposing of body heat than the animal on restricted food intake. However these conclusions are modified by the inherent ability of farm animals to withstand heat or cold. Experiments show that there is greater efficiency of food conversion when a breed is exploited in the climate to which it is best adapted. Quality of forage can be expressed in terms of the voluntary intake that animals make of it. It has been very difficult to predict quality or intake of forages when the chemical composition is known. The problem of predicting digestibility and intake has been attacked by the use of statistical constants based on numerous data from the literature. However there are specific cases in which intake seems to be extremely difficult to predict from chemical data.