Effect of Positioning of Feed Samples in Two Segments of the Rumen on In-situ Degradability of Feed Stuffs

S. Bogoro, D.J.U. Kalla and O. Gaiya

The effect of positioning of Sorghum Stover and groundnut haulms at dorsal and ventral segments of rumen was investigated using Nylon bags for 4, 24 and 48 hours incubation in the rumen of two cannulated bulls. The 24 hour dry matter (DM) disappearance values were 60.05 (dorsal segment), 58.93 (ventral segments) for the groundnut haulm and 14.65 (dorsal segment), 15.75 (ventral segments) for Sorghum Stover respectively, with the following corresponding rates of degradability (C value) 0.010, 0.009, 0.005 and 0.004 respectively. The results showed no significant effect of positioning in the rumen. Expectedly the groundnut haulms were however degraded more than the Sorghum Stover, making the dry matter from the latter more available to the host animal than those of the former. The difference in the rate of degradation between groundnut haulm and sorghum stover must have rested on the degree of exposure of the degradable samples to the various rumen microbial species rather than that of rumen positioning of those feedstuff samples