Abstract

This study was designed to investigate hourly ruminal degradation pattern and daily Amino Acid (AA) production of sheep fed six feed ingredients during a nine consecutive days trial. Twelve sheep (av. BW 60 kg), with ruminal cannulas were assigned to six dietary treatments according to a 6×2 factorial arrangement in which dietary treatment were: Raw corn meal (T₁), Processed corn meal (T₂), Raw soybean meal (T₃), Processed soybean meal (T₄), Raw distillers dried grains with solubles (T₅) and Processed distillers dried grains with solubles (T₆) and 2 environment temperature (20 and 30°C). Animals were given restrict access to Totally Mixed Rations (TMR) and ruminally infused daily with each of the above ingredients. Digestive characteristics showed two hourly degradation of pH and $NH_4^+$ differed (p<0.001) between sampling periods. Six hourly ruminal fermentation for acetate (C2) were affected (p<0.001) with greater production at noon sampling period. Propionic, butyric acids and acetate: propionate ratio (C2/C3) decreased (p<0.05) post noon sampling period. Environment temperature affected AA degradability with greater degradability achieved at 30°C for Val, Ser and Pro (p<0.05, p<0.05 and p<0.01, respectively) during 6 h of ruminal incubation. Except Try, Cys and Val the entire AA detected showed daily increament (p<0.001) after 6 h of ruminal incubation. All other AA, but Val differed (p<0.001) during the 12 h daily sampling period. Concentrations of AA remaining in the bag after 6 and 12 h of incubation peaked at 6 and 4 h daily. In conclusion, degradability and AA output of feed ingredients differed between hours and days.

Keywords:

Amino acids, feed ingredients, ruminal degradation, sheep,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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The authors have no competing interests.