Rumen degradability of organic matter, nitrogen and fibre fractions in forages

Abstract

ABSTRACTRumen degradability of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), nitrogen (N), neutral-detergent fibre (NDF), hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin was evaluated with the in situ technique for maize silage and cocksfoot, timothy, fescue, lucerne and meadow hays. The degradability of each of the six forages was studied separately, each forage being used in turn as the main component of the diet offered to four fistulated cows. For each forage 300 g were mordanted with sodium dichromate and placed in the rumen when the same forage was studied. Faecal grab samples were collected to measure the forage transit time. Digestibility was evaluated using both lignin as an indicator and by an in vitro method.Rumen outflow rate was higher for cocksfoot and lucerne hays than for maize silage and the meadow, timothy and fescue hays (P < 0·01). The effective degradabilities of DM and OM were higher in maize silage, fescue and lucerne than in cocksfoot, timothy or meadow hay (P < 0·01). Effective degradability of N was highest in lucerne and lowest in timothy and meadow hay (P < 0·01). The degradability of NDF, hemicellulose and cellulose for fescue was always the highest of the six forages (P < 0·01; P < 0·05; F < 0·01 respectively).Rumen outflow rate was statistically correlated with the c value of DM (r = 0·47), N (r = 0·54), NDF (r = 0·43) and hemicellulose (r = 0·43). High correlations were observed between rate constants of degradation of NDF and hemicellulose, cellulose or lignin (0·93, 0·75 and 0·79 respectively). The regression between in vitro and lignin-derived digestibility was highly significant (P < 0·001, r2 = 0·902 residual s.e. 0·017). The multiple regression analysis between lignin-based digestibility and degradability coefficients, effective degradability and coefficients of faecal chromium excretion was highly significant (r = 0·748; residual s.e. = 0·03).