In vitro Nitrogen Degradability of Some Forages, Top Feeds and Fibrous Crop Residues Kishore K. Raja1, Parthasarathy M.* Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary Science, Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University, Tirupati-517 502, India. *Reprint request: Dr. M. Parthasarathy, E-mail: mandadi.parthasarathy@gmail.com
1Present address: Buffalo Research Station, Venkataramannagudem, West Godavari-534 101, India. Abstract The study was conducted to evaluate some forages, top feeds and fibrous crop residues for their total N content and N fractions in vitro based on their solubility in buffer and detergent solutions. The feed samples include eight cultivated grasses, eight leguminous forages, eight top feeds and six fibrous crop residues. Total N content (g/kg DM) for grasses, leguminous forages, top feeds and crop residues was 12.9, 22.0, 30.1 and 7.2, respectively. Potentially digestible N was more than 90 per cent for most of the feedstuffs with the exception of paragrass (88.2%), napier bajra (NB-21) (86.6%), Cenchrus ciliaris (86.6%), gliricidia (86.9%), rice straw (68.6%), maize straw (77.6%), sorghum straw (82.0%) and finger millet straw (86.3%). It was concluded that dietary N can be partitioned into various fractions based on solubility in buffer and detergent solutions and various feed sources can have wide variation in rumen degradation pattern thus presenting different N fractions at duodenal level. Nitrogen degradability of feedstuffs in vitro is useful to screen various feedstuffs for their utility in ruminant rations. Top Keywords Nitrogen degradability, Forages, Top feeds, Crop residues, In vitro. Top |