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Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 40 No. 7 768-773
© 1957 by American Dairy Science Association ®
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Digestibility of the Top and Bottom Portions of the Alfalfa Plant, as Estimated from Small, Randomly Collected Samples of Feces1

W. A. Hardison2, W. N. Linkous3 and C. Y. Ward4

Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg

ABSTRACT

Results of Reid et al. (8) from a limited experiment suggested it was possible to predict accurately the digestibility of pasture forage from the analysis of small, randomly collected samples of feces. Further work by Hardison and Reid (5) showed that grab-sampling of feces for the estimation of dry-matter digestibility was feasible. More recently, Soni and coworkers (12) have shown that there is no diurnal variation in the dry-matter digestion coefficients of grazing sheep and heifers, as estimated by the fecal chromogen or fecal nitrogen method. Thus, it is indicated that accurate results can be obtained from feces collected anytime during a 24-hour period. The results of Reid et al. (8) and also those of Soni et al. (12) were based on fecal samples collected during only the daylight hours.

This work was undertaken to study further the accuracy of dry-matter digestibility estimates, derived from the concentration of plant chromogen, in small samples of feces collected at various times during the entire day, and to compare the digestibility of the top and bottom portions of the alfalfa plant.

FOOTNOTES

1 Contributing to Southern Regional Project S-12.

2 Department of Dairy Science.

3 Deceased; formerly a member of the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition.

4 Department of Agronomy.






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Copyright © 1957 by the American Dairy Science Association ®.