Brachiaria grasses in vitro digestibility with bovine and ovine ruminal liquid as inoculum.

It was hypothesized that i t is possible that inoculum from different ruminant specie s with different digesti ve abilities feeding from a certain forage may show different feed utilization s comparing to other ruminant specie s . Five Brachiaria grass es were evaluated : B . decumbens cv . Basilisk, B . decumbens access D70, B . humidicola cv . Tupi, B humidicola cv . Common, and B . ruziziensis access R124, at two regrowth ages (21 and 42 d) . Production, bromatological content, in vitro dry matter digestibility ( iv DMD ) and in vitro neutral detergent fiber digestibility ( iv NDFD ) were analyzed using bovine or ovine inoculums . The experiment use d a 5 × 2 × 2 factorial design and found significant effect s for grass variety and regrowth age . In addition, significant interaction s from grass × age on dry matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber of total sample and leaf blade were found . There were significant effect of grass variety and grass age on forage mass, leaf blade / stem ratio, leaf blade, stem, senescent material and growth. I n vitro digestibility assays of inoculum source showed significant effect i n some varieties . Due to differences in in vitro assays, it was recommended t he use of specie s - specific inoculums for feed evaluations according to the animal it is intended for . Also, B. decumbens cv . Basilisk presented the best in vitro digestibility ( iv DMD and iv NDFD ) in bovine inoculum, whereas B. humidicola cv . Tupi had better in vitro digestibility ( iv DMD and iv N D FD) in ovine inoculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]