Degradabilities of dry matter and crude protein from perennial herbage and supplements used in dairy production systems in Victoria

Abstract

Summary The nylon bag technique was used to estimate the degradability of the dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) of herbage samples and supplementary feeds from recent grazing experiments with dairy cows conducted in Victoria. The cumulative disappearance data for CP were used to calculate the effective rumen degradability of CP (ERDP, g/kg DM) for these feeds at rumen outflow rates of 0.02, 0.05 or 0.08/h. Crude protein was more extensively degraded than DM in all herbage samples collected before grazing, or in those samples taken to represent the herbage consumed by grazing cows.