The digestion of two diets of differing protein content but with similar capacities to sustain wool growth

Abstract

Measurements were made of the digestion in sheep of two diets of differing protein content but known to support similar levels of wool growth. When offered to the sheep at 500 g/day, the high protein (HP) diet provided 13.8 g nitrogen (N), while the low protein (LP) diet provided 5.5 g. With the HP diet, approximately 8.8 g N in forms other than ammonia passed daily through the pylorus; 6.8 g of this N was apparently digested in the intestines. The corresponding values for the LP diet were 8.1 and 6.2. The similarity in wool growth recorded with these diets, despite large differences in dietary protein intake, is consistent with the hypothesis that wool growth is limited by the quantity of amino acid N absorbed from the alimentary tract. The stomach was the site of 72–73 % of the organic matter digestion and more than 90% of the cellulose digestion that occurred in the whole alimentary tract. In addition, approximately 90% of the dietary soluble carbohydrate was apparently digested in the stomach. It was calculated, by making several assumptions, that the quantity of microbial crude protein synthesized in the rumen did not exceed 44–49 g/day, equivalent to 15–16 g/100 g organic matter digested in the rumen. The implications of this calculation in the protein nutrition of ruminants are discussed. The retention time of a soluble marker in the rumen was 15–18 hr, and rates of flow of digesta from the rumen and abomasum were comparatively low.