Effects of Stage of Growth and Duration of Rumen Incubation Time on Intestinal Digestibility of Rumen-Undegradable Nitrogen of Grass by Mobile-Bag Method in Cows
Titel:
Effects of Stage of Growth and Duration of Rumen Incubation Time on Intestinal Digestibility of Rumen-Undegradable Nitrogen of Grass by Mobile-Bag Method in Cows
Auteur:
Vanhatalo, Aila Dakowski, Pawel Huhtanen, Pekka
Verschenen in:
Acta agriculturae Scandinavica. Section A, Animal science
Paginering:
Jaargang 46 (1996) nr. 1 pagina's 1-10
Jaar:
1996-02-01
Inhoud:
The ruminal and intestinal degradability of the nitrogen constituents of timothy grass cut at five different stages of growth was studied in three non-lactating cows. The grass samples were incubated in nylon bags in the rumen for 0, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h. The subsequent digestion of rumen-undegradable N in the intestine was measured by the mobile-bag method. The N content of grass declined, and the fibre content and the proportion of N bound in acid detergent fibre increased with increasing maturity. The values for rumen degradability of grass N corrected for microbial contamination were generally high and they decreased with increasing maturity. The intestinal N digestibility of rumen-undegradable N of grass ranged from 49% to 78%, being affected by growth stage and the duration of preceding rumen incubation time. These values may, however, be confounded by non-feed N. Pre-incubation of forage samples in the rumen indicated that at least 48 h of rumen incubation is needed for predicting intestinal N digestibility from the indigestible N fraction determined with the mobile-bag method.