J. Anim Sci.
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J. Anim Sci. 1969. 28:18-22.
© 1969 American Society of Animal Science
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Evaluation of in vitro and in vivo Cecal Fermentation Techniques for Estimating the Nutritive Value of Forages for Equine1

Carol S. Applegate2 and T. V. Hershberger3, 4,

The Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Abstract

The digestion of alfalfa, timothy and orchardgrass hay harvested June 3, 13 and 23, 1966 was determined by in vitro, nylon bag and conventional digestion trial techniques. Digestion coefficients for cellulose, hemicellulose, dry matter, crude fiber and digestible energy were determined together with Nutritive Value Index.

All techniques and harvests of hay were shown to differ significantly with regard to cellulose, hemicellulose and dry matter digestion coefficients.

Highly significant relationships existed between digestion coefficients determined by all techniques. The in vitro and inoculum control techniques yielded significantly correlated cellulose and hemicellulose digestion coefficients, which suggested that the hay fed the source animal need not be the same as that being tested in vitro.

It was concluded that the in vitroand the nylon bag techniques gave reliable estimates of forage digestibility by the equine, and that hemicellulose digestion in vitro may provide an estimate of the Nutritive Value Index of a forage. Because of the ease of performance and the advantage of simultaneous, multiple replications, the in vitro cecal fermentation technique was considered to be the most useful.

Footnotes

1 Published with the approval of the Director of The Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station as Journal Article No. 3363.

2 Present address: Animal Husbandry Research Division, U.S.D.A.—A.R.S., Beltsville, Maryland 20705.

3 Department of Animal Science 16802.

4 The authors wish to thank the Barker, Moore and Mein Co., Inc. for partial support of this work.






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Copyright © 1969 by the American Society of Animal Science.