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Forage Digestion by Rabbits Compared to Crude Fiber, Methoxyl and Crude Protein Contents as Indicators of Digestion by Ruminants^1,2,

University of Delaware, Newark

Abstract

The value of forage digestion by rabbits as an indicator of forage digestion by ruminants was investigated by comparing the digestibility by sheep and by rabbits of alfalfa grown in two different years, an alfalfa-bromegrass mixture, and three grasses (orchardgrass, bromegrass and timothy). The correlations and regression equations which represented the relationship between these two were calculated for the alfalfa and the alfalfa-bromegrass mixture, for the grasses and for the legumes and grasses combined. These were compared to similar calculations for other indicators such as methoxyl, crude fiber and crude protein contents.

It would appear that with the forages studied in this investigation the methoxyl content has the highest indicator value for ruminant digestion when grasses and legumes are considered in one regression equation. Crude fiber, and rabbit digestion follow in that order in effectiveness. When the legumes and grasses are considered separately, the rankings are different. With legumes the ranking was rabbit digestion followed by crude fiber, while methoxyl was nonsignificant. With grasses it was methoxyl, rabbit digestion and crude fiber.

¹ Department of Animal and Poultry Science. Published as miscellaneous paper No. 399 with the approval of the Director, Delaware Agricultural Experiment Station.

² Supported in part from Regional Funds as a part of Delaware's contributing project to NE-24, the Nutritive Evaluation of Forages.

³ Present address: CSESS, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington 25, D. C.

⁴ Present address: Dairy Department, University of Maryland, College Park.

⁵ Present address: Animal Industries Dept., University of Connecticut, Storrs.

⁶ The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of the following in various phases of this work: R. D. Dempsey, J. L. Fleeger, R. M. Somers, W. H. Mitchell, C. E. Phillips, J. R. Stritzinger, C. D. Passmore.