Abstract
ABSTRACTThe leaves of tropical grasses are eaten in larger quantities than stems of similar DM digestibility. To determine whether the same fact applied to a temperate grass, studies were made with leaf and stem fractions of Lolium perenne. The leaves of L. perenne had a 20% higher voluntary intake than the stems, white the DM digestibilities were only slightly higher (67·3%ν. 64·8%). The leaves also had a larger surface area/g, a higher initial (12 h) fermentation rate in vitro, larger content of pepsin‐soluble DM, and a smaller energy require ment to grind I g DM in a laboratory mill compared with the stems.The difference in voluntary intake between the leaves and stems of L. perenne was smaller than that for a number of tropical grasses.
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