Using faecal nitrogen as a marker to estimate intake and digestibility in sheep fed multi-species native forage.
ABSTRACT.- Livestock production in southern South America heavily relies on extensive native grasslands, characterized by high plant species diversity, which makes estimating forage digestibility and intake by ruminants in this pastoral ecosystem challenging. Therefore, the aim of this study was to generate regression models to establish the relationship between total faecal nitrogen excretion (FNe) and intake, and faecal nitrogen content (FNc) and digestibility in sheep fed multispecies native forage.