Determination of rumen degradability of some oilseeds and meals using nylon bag technique

Abstract

Summary:The present experiment was carried out to determine the rumen dry mater (DM) and crude protein (CP) degradability of poppy seed meal, poppy seed, canola meal, sesame seed, hemp seed and groundnut meal. Three ruminally cannulated Merino rams weighing approximately 60 kg were used in the present experiment. Two nylon bags were used for each feed and each time of incubation per sheep. The bags were incubated in the rumen of each animal for 2, 4, 8, 16, 24 or 48 h. Significant (p<0.001) differences were obtained among the oilseeds and meals for DM and CP degradability according to feed samples and incubation times. Dry matter degradabiliy of canola meal was found slower than those of the other feeds up to 16 h incubation time. Hemp seed had the slowest dry matter degradability from 16 h to 48 h of incubation. Among the test materials poppy seed reached the lowest CP degradability at 24 h of incubation. Sesame seed was seen to have highest CP degradation at end of the 48 h of incubation. Although hemp seed protein degraded sharply at 2 h incubation period it showed a stabile degradation by the time. Dry matter 'a' fractions of feeds ranged from 12.18 % (canola meal) and 36.89 % (poppy seed). Although the effective dry matter degradability value for canola meal (49.62 % for 0.06 h -1 ) was the lowest, sesame seed (64.37 %, 0.06 h -1 ) dry matter P e was determined as the highest value. The lowest effective crude protein degradability value was seen for poppy seed (54.05 %, 0.06 h -1 ).