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Estimation of Forage Nutritive Value from Cellulose Digestibilities Obtained with Pure Cultures of Cellulolytic Rumen Bacteria¹

Department of Animal Science, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Wooster

ABSTRACT

Per cent cellulose digestion values for twelve different forages, under limiting substrate conditions, were obtained with seven strains of cellulolytic rumen bacteria and correlated with various in vivo parameters of forage digestibility. When the forages were considered by type (eight samples of grasses and four samples of alfalfa), correlations with all seven strains were very high. On the other hand, when all twelve forages were combined, cellulose digestion by four of the seven strains was highly correlated with in vivo dry matter digestibility (DMD) and cellulose digestibility (CD), and quite low correlation coefficients were obtained with the criteria of relative intake (RI) and nutritive value index (NVI). Considerably better correlation coefficients with NVI and RI were obtained with cellulose digestibility data from the three remaining strains. Combining the cellulose digestibility data with the chemical measurement of dry matter solubility (DMS) markedly improved the correlations with both NVI and RI. On the basis of these results, one organism from each of the two groups was selected, and cellulose digestion was measured on a series of 64 forages. Correlation coefficients were calculated for the different types of forages (22 grasses, 17 alfalfa and 25 mixed forages) and all forages combined. In addition, DMS values were combined with the digestibility data and similar correlations determined. For all 64 forages combined, the best correlation coefficients obtained were: RI, 0.76; NVI, 0.88; DMD, 0.89; CD, 0.90; energy digestion (ED), 0.90. These correlations are similar to or somewhat higher than those obtained on this series of forages by chemical and in vitro mixed culture fermentation methods. One particular advantage of the present method would be that as little as 0.50 g of forage would be adequate for determining cellulose digestion.

¹ Approved for publication as Journal Article no. 87-67 by the Associate Director of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Wooster.