Estimating starch availability and protein degradation of steam-flaked and reconstituted sorghum grain through a gas production technique.

Five steam-flaked sorghum grain (SFSG) samples with bulk densities of 476, 412, 347, 309 and 283 g/liter made by adjusting tension between mill rollers and three reconstituted sorghum grain (RSG) samples with reconstitution times of 10, 20 and 30 d and a control sample were analyzed for gas production kinetics (rumen liquor fermentation) and enzymatic glucose release (amyloglucosidase). Protein degradation was estimated from 6-h gas production and residual ammonia in the liquid. Gas production followed first-order kinetics (r2 greater than .98; P less than .01) and was used to describe rate and extent of digestion kinetics. Rate of gas production increased as processing degree increased. The magnitude of increase in gas production, however, was much less for RSG than for SFSG. Linear relationships were observed between enzymatic glucose release and the gas production rate constant k as well as gas production at 4,6 and 8 h (r2 greater than .98; P less than .01). Protein degradation decreased with processing degree of SFSG but increased with reconstitution time. A technique based on 6-h gas production and residual ammonia in the liquid is proposed to estimate both ruminal starch availability and ruminal protein degradability for processed sorghum grain.