Date Available
8-12-2018
Year of Publication
2018
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
College
Agriculture, Food and Environment
Department/School/Program
Animal and Food Sciences
Advisor
Dr. Laurie Lawrence
Abstract
Most forage quality models were developed for ruminant nutrition, and may not apply to the horse. This two-part study evaluated the relationship between forage chemical composition and dry matter digestibility (DMD) using an in vitro method with equine feces as the inoculums. The first experiment determined that compared to 48 h of incubation, 72 h of incubation resulted in higher DMD for some forages. As a result of experiment 1, incubations in experiment 2 were conducted using 48 and 72 h incubation periods at 38 degrees C. The second experiment evaluated the effect of chemical composition on DMD. Thirty-one hay samples were used that ranged from 33% to 71% for NDF, 21% to 44% for ADF and 6.7 to 25.6% for CP (all on DMB). There were inverse relationships between ADF and DMD ( r = -0.826 at 48 h; -0.841 at 72 h) and NDF and DMD (r = -0.779 at 48 h; 0.812 at 72 h). There was a positive relationship between CP and DMD (r =0.572 at 48 h; 0.615 at 72 h). Forage chemical composition, particularly ADF and NDF, has potential to predict digestibility of forages by horses.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2018.357
Recommended Citation
Bill, Veronica Taylor, "APPLICATIONS IN UTILIZATION OF FORAGE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND PREDICTING EQUINE DIGESTIBILITY" (2018). Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences. 89.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/animalsci_etds/89
