AN EVALUATION OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN DIETARY PARAMETERS AND RUMEN LIQUID TURNOVER RATE

Abstract

Data were accumulated from published sources and were combined in order to estimate the effects of level of feed intake, dietary energy concentration, energy intake level and dietary forage percentage on rumen liquid turnover rates in sheep and cattle. The effects of the dietary parameters on liquid turnover rates were estimated by regression analysis, where all possible combinations of independent variables were considered. It was found that rumen liquid turnover rates increased (P < 0.05) as feed intake increased with both sheep (r = 0.610) and cattle (r = 0.715). From multiple regression analyses it was learned that the inclusion of independent variables that were related to the physical composition of the diet along with variables for intake improved the estimation of liquid turnover rates, although the independent variable related to ration composition differed between sheep and cattle. With data from sheep experiments, elevations in the digestible energy content of the diet depressed (P < 0.05) liquid turnover rate. Based upon data from cattle, decreases in the forage portion of the diet had a similar depressing (P < 0.05) effect.