Short communication: Prediction of in vitro dry matter digestibility with the ankom daisy ii system of ruminant feeds using the gas production technique

Abstract

The potential of the gas production technique to predict in vitro dry matter digestibility was determined using 50 ruminant feeds, including grass/alfalfa forages, grain crop silages, grains, high protein feeds, and feed straws. Without including the chemical composition in the prediction equation, the prediction of IVDMD based on the cumulative gas production during 48 h alone was poor (R2=0.48). Including the crude protein and neutral detergent fibre concentrations of the feed in the prediction equation improved the accuracy of the prediction (R2=0.87), which was higher than that of predicting IVDMD based on the chemical composition alone (R2=0.82).