Cumulative production of gases and France parameters evaluated by the semi-automatic in vitro technique of carbohydrates sources for ruminants

Abstract

It was evaluated, by semi-automatic technique in vitro, the effect of the associations among different sources of carbohydrates (dent corn or flint corn or citrus pulp) to forage (corn silage, sorghum silage + silage corn residue, elephant grass, sugar cane, silage corn residue) on the cumulative gas production. There was a significant interaction between treatments and incubation times. The association of sorghum silage with silage corn residue + dent corn (SRDE) resulted in higher cumulative gas production at all times with total production of 325.3 mL at 96 hours. The France's parameters showed that the treatment with sugar-cane (CADE, CADU and CAPC) resulted in high potential gas production (322, 325 and 317mL/gMS, respectively). The associations from Elephantgrass + dent or flint corn (CEDU and CEDE) resulted in high colonization times (2.21 and 1.07 hours, respectively). In general, the best results of gas production were obtained in the treatments that addressed the association of sorghum silage + silage corn residue in bulky portion (SRDE, and SRDU srpc) showing the potential for using these sources in the diets of ruminants.