Updating maintenance energy requirement for the current sheep flocks and the associated effect of nutritional and animal factors

There is evidence indicating that using the current UK energy feeding system to ration the present sheep flocks may underestimate their nutrient requirements. The objective of the present study was to address this issue by developing updated maintenance energy requirements for the current sheep flocks and evaluating if these requirements were influenced by a range of dietary and animal factors. Data (n = 131) used were collated from five experiments with sheep (5 to 18 months old and 29.0 to 69.8 kg BW) undertaken at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute of the UK from 2013 to 2017. The trials were designed to evaluate the effects of dietary type, genotype, physiological stage and sex on nutrient utilization and energetic efficiencies. Energy intake and output data were measured in individual calorimeter chambers. Energy balance (E_g) was calculated as the difference between gross energy intake and a sum of fecal energy, urine energy, methane energy and heat production. Data were analysed using the restricted maximum likelihood analysis to develop the linear relationship between E_g or heat production and metabolizable energy (ME) intake, with the effects of a range of dietary and animal factors removed. The net energy (NE_m) and ME (ME_m) requirements for maintenance derived from the linear relationship between E_g and ME intake were 0.358 and 0.486 MJ/kg BW^0.75, respectively, which are 40% to 53% higher than those recommended in energy feeding systems currently used to ration sheep in the USA and the UK. Further analysis of the current dataset revealed that concentrate supplement, sire type or physiological stage had no significant effect on the derived NE_m values. However, female lambs had a significantly higher NE_m (0.352 v. 0.306 or 0.288 MJ/kg BW^0.75) or ME_m (0.507 v. 0.441 or 0.415 MJ/kg BW^0.75) than those for male or castrated lambs. The present results indicate that using present energy feeding systems in the UK developed over 40 years ago to ration the current sheep flocks could underestimate maintenance energy requirements. There is an urgent need to update these systems to reflect the higher metabolic rates of the current sheep flocks.