Some Physico-Chemical Characteristics of Forages and Their Relationships to Digestibility

Packed volume (PV), specific gravity (SG), water holding capacity (WHC), DM solubility (DMS), anhydrouronic acid (UA) content and titratable groups (TG) of various non-legumes and leguminous forages were determined and their relationship to in sacco DM digestibility and potential extent of cell wall digestion estimated. The everage values for ron-legumes and legumes for PV were 3.70, 3.92 and 3.32 and for SG were 0.98, 1.01 and 0.92 in distilled water and 0.84,0.91 and 0.72 in McDougall’s buffer respectively. PV and SG were significantly affected by the forage NDF content. DMS was sighest in not distilled dater and lowest in rumen liquor. Legumes tended to have higher solubility In all the five solutions compared. Solubility of DMS was inversely related to the fibre content of the forage. The values for WHC averaged 6.14 and 4.78 ml/g DM and 734 and 834 ml/g NDF in non-legumes and legumes, respectively. Non-legumes contained more UA relative to legumes while the content to TG was higher in legumes. The results suggested that the measure of DM loss in distilled water or rumen liquor was an eefecttve and simple test for predicting nutritive value of forages.