Effects of different quality diets consumed continuously or after a lower quality diet on characteristics of growth of young Spanish goats

Spanish wether and doeling kids (4.5 months of age; 13.4 kg initial BW) were used to determine influences of different quality diets consumed continuously or after a lower quality diet on characteristics of growth. The experiment consisted of two 9-week periods. Diets were low quality forage (L, prairie hay supplemented with soybean meal), high quality forage (H, dehydrated alfalfa pellets) and 70% concentrate (C). Kids on two treatments consumed L in Period 1, with half switched to C and half to H in Period 2 (LC and LH, respectively). The CC treatment entailed C consumption in both periods, and HH kids were fed H in both periods. For HC, H was fed in Period 1 followed by C in Period 2. DM intake ranked (P<0.05) LC and LH