On the one hand, an increase in food
intake (measured as dry matter intake; DMI, g kg−0.75 d−1) can lead to
shorter ingesta MRT (h) and subsequently lower digestive efficiency (i.e.
nutrient extracted per unit of material ingested). Consequently, reduced
MRTs associated with increasing DMIs can impose an intrinsic limit on
the amount of feed the animal can ingest, thus limiting digestible dry
matter intake (DDMI, g kg−0.75 d−1). For example, Clauss et al. (2007b)
found a particularly steep negative relationship between MRT and DMI
in ruminant (sheep and cattle) and non-ruminant (hippopotamus)
foregut fermenters, which truncated their DDMIs at increasing levels
DMI.