THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CHEWING DIFFERENT SACCHARINA PARTICLE SIZES ON PARTICLE DEGRADATION AND RUMEN KINETICS IN RAMS

Four crossbred 26 kg live weight rams cannulated in the rumen were use d in a double Latin square 2 x 2 design to study the effectiveness of chewing on particle degradation and rumen kinetics. The treatments wer e two finely (2.2 mm) and coarsely (5.0 mm) chopped Saccharina forage based diets supplemented with 200 g of star grass (Cynodon nlemfuensis ) and 300 g of a commercial concentrate. The pattern of particle distr ibution showed that a marked differences between feeding particles dis appear in the rumen through chewing. Chewing effectiveness of rams was 32% with finely chopped Saccharina and 65% with coarsley chopped Sacc harina. The type of chopping did not affect the digesta content nor th e mean digesta retention in the rumen lasting from 18 to 20 hr in both treatments. It is concluded that the rams reduced particles to an ade quate size for its ingestion and passage regardless the initial size b y duplicating the effectiveness of chewing.