Analysis of stretched film-wrapped silage oat forage for feeding young sheep in winter

In order to promote the technology of wrap-covered silage in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and improve the utilization level of oat forage, 40 Qinghai Oula sheeps aged 5 to 6 months were selected in winter and divided into two groups, 20 in each group, with the same supplementary feed. On the basis of feeding, the stretched film-wrapped silage oat forage and oatmeal green hay for 51 days showed that the crude protein, crude fat, and ash content of the wrapped silage oat forage reached 9.09%, 2.91%, and 6.55%, respectively (increases of 94.23%, 95.30%, and 31.53%, respectively). The crude fiber and nitrogen-free extracts comprised 35.27% and 46.18%, which were 11.14% and 6.06% lower than the oat-green hay, respectively; The average daily forage intake and crude protein intake of wrapped silage oat forage was 3.55 kg·d^–1 and 88.81 g·d^–1, respectively, which is 130.52% and 33.65% higher than those of oat green hay (P < 0.01); the daily gain reached 197.35 g·d^–1, and the average profit was 87.13 CNY, which was 40.96% (P < 0.01) and 127.91% higher than that of oat green hay, respectively. The cost of raising weight was 11.35 CNY·kg^–2, which was 29.07% lower than that of oat hay. The results show that oat forage could increase crude protein content, retain nutritional quality of green forage, improve palatability, increase feed and digestive absorption, reduce breeding costs, increase meat and milk yield of herbivorous animals and raise economic benefits of breeding by wrapping silage with stretch film, which is worthy of popularization and application in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.