Rumen Fermentation Pattern as Affected by Feeding Oat Hay and Green Sorghum Based Diets

Three fistulated crossbred bulls were fed on different iso-nitrogenous diets containing oat hay and concentrate mixture in first phase and green sorghum and concentrate mixture in second phase. In each phase, rumen liquor samples were collected after 15 days of experimental feeding for three consecutive days at 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 h post feeding and analyzed for pH, total-N, NH.,-N, TCA-precipitable-N and TVFA concentration. The results revealed that in both groups pH of rumen liquor samples was reduced significantly (P<0.05) and total-N, NH₃ -N & TVFA concentration were signiflcantly (P<0.05) higher at 4 h post feeding as compared to 0 h values. The results indicated that there is a significant effect of dietary treatments on rumen fermentation pattern with reference to nitrogenous constituents and TVFA cocentration. The green sorghum plus small amount of concentrates may improve rumen fermentation.