The use of in vitro gas production technique to investigate the associative effect of a desert plant with high quality forage [electronic resource].

Includes reference.

In vitro gas production technique was used to investigate the associative effect of mixing Rhodes grass (RG-Chloris gayana) with alfalfa (AA-Medicago sativa) by various proportions (3:1, 1:1, 1:3) on gas production and ruminal fermentation. A gas test technique was performed using fistulated sheep rumen fluid Cumulative gas production was recorded at 3, 6, 9, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 hr of incubation. The neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL) were slightly higher in RG than AA while crude protein (CP) was significantly higher in AA than RG. The secondary compounds analyses resulted in negligible contents of these feeds from total phenol, total tannins and condensed tannins. The potential gas volume was highest for AA. and significant associative response in gas production (P<0.05) was found when the RG was mixed with AA by different ratios. While the lowest gas production was observed with RG. The maximum rate of gas production (c) was highest in AA and lowest for RG and the same trend was observed with gas production from soluble fraction (GPSF) and gas production from non soluble fraction (GPNSF). Mixing RG with AA improved significantly (P<0.05) the rate of gas production and decreased the lag time (L). There were Significant (P< 0.05) differences in terms of predicted dry matter intake (DMl), short chain fatty acids (SCFA), organic matter digestibility (OMD), microbial protein (MP). metabolizable energy (ME) and net energy (NE). The inclusion of RG by 25% with 75% of AA showed the best results and improved the DMl, SCFA, OMD, MP, and energy content in comparison with RG. It was concluded that RG nutritive value can be improved by mixing with high quality roughages.

Summary in Arabic.

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