J. Aufrere et al., Degradation in the rumen of proteins from fresh lucerne forage in various stages of growth and conserved as silage or hay, ANN ZOOTECH, 49(6), 2000, pp. 461-474
The extent to which rumen soluble nitrogen can contribute to the intestinal
flow is unknown. Therefore a study was carried out to simultaneously asses
s the dynamics of protein disappearance from dacron bags placed in the rume
n and the amount of various N products (total nitrogen (tN), ammonia nitrog
en (NH3-N), non-ammonia nitrogen (NAN). Measurements were carried out on 4
sheep fed various lucerne forages. These forages included fresh lucerne cut
at the vegetative or bud stage, fresh lucerne cut at the 6-week second gro
wth stage and at stemmy regrowth stage. In addition two silages made from l
ucerne at the bud stage, with or without formic acid were also given. The h
ay was dried on the ground in good weather. The effective degradability of
nitrogen (DegN) estimated from the nylon bag procedure was lower (p < 0.05)
with the latter vegetation stage (0.80 for vegetative stage vs. 0.76 for b
ud stage). This value was 0.81 for the regrowth stage. The DegN of the sila
ges was higher (p < 0.05) without additive (0.84) than with formic acid (0.
80) and the DegN of the hay was markedly lower (0.66, p < 0.05) than with t
he original fresh forage. Whatever the forage studied, tN and NAN rumen flu
id contents were high at 1 h or 2 h after feeding (from 0.458 mg.g(-1) for
hay to 0.813 mg.g(-1) for fresh forage at the vegetative stage) and diminis
hed rapidly up to 7 h after feeding except for the silages, for which the m
inimum content was observed 4 h after feeding. A part of the solubilised ni
trogen remained as proteins at 1 h and 2 h after feeding for fresh lucerne
at various stages of harvesting (from 0.187 mg.g(-1) to 0.221 mg.g(-1) at 1
h) while no protein could be seen in the rumen fluid after feeding of shee
p fed silage (with or without preservative) or hay. The part of NAN escapin
g rumen degradation and transiting with the rumen fluid represented 7 to 11
% of the nitrogen disappearing from the nylon bags placed in the rumen. The
re was little difference linked to the vegetation stage of the forage or it
s mode of conservation in particular. This content remained high for hay wh
ile its effective degradability (0.66) was much lower than for other forage
s (from 0.76 to 0.84).