Veterinary Handbook Contents

The pellets currently used on ships for sheep and cattle are small (10 mm diameter) and durable, designed for use in modern automated feeding systems. The components have normally undergone considerable grinding, to produce small particles that make up the pellet. Processes of heat, steam and pressure gelatinise the starch matrix of the grain, binding the finely ground components together. 

Hay and chaff may be loaded on board as an ASEL requirement and will be used for feeding sick animals in hospital pens, providing dietary roughage and helping to reduce the risk of heat stress. The quantities are usually relatively small because hay and chaff are difficult to load, store and feed out compared to pellets. However, it is recommended that sufficient hay and chaff be loaded on to ships to supplement the pellet diet of ruminants with at least 0.5% body weight per day of good quality long stem cereal hay or coarsely chopped chaff. The longer fibre particles help to maintain rumen fermentation and may reduce the incidence of some of the important nutrition-related diseases of ruminants seen in the export process such as acidosis, bloat, persistent Inappetence and salmonellosis. There may be significant economic and animal welfare benefits if the provision of hay or chaff reduces the number of sick animals, drug usage and the need for hospital pens; as well as improving weight gains, body condition scores, aiding the management of heat stress and for the general health of animals.