Nutritive Value Assessment of Three Rangeland Species Using Sheep Rumen and Feces Fluid

This study was done to investigate the nutritive value of Festocaovina, Agrostisgiganta and Avena sativa using sheep rumen and feces liquor as sources of micro-organism through gas production method. Rumen and feces liquor were collected from three fistulated sheep. Rangeland species sampling was randomly conducted from different areas of Guilan province. All the collected samples were initially split and milled. To determine their chemical composition and digestibility, they were tested through Gas Production Process. The chemical composition in terms of ash, ether extract (EE), crude protein (CP), acid detergent fiber (ADF), and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) were determined and gas production metabolizable energy (ME), organic matter digestibility (OMD), short chain fatty acids (SCFA), net energy for lactating (NEL), and digestibility dry matter intake (DDM) were predicted. CP ranged from 9.89% (F. ovina), 11.2% (A. sativa) to 11.84% (A. giganta) and ADF ranged from 28.37% (F. ovina), 42.07% (A. giganta) to 42.8% (A. sativa). The results showed that the amount of gas produced in species and different sources of micro-organism is significantly different (p<0.05). The results also indicated that the amount of gas production in rumen fluid and liquid stools increased with the time of incubation. The regression relationships between the amount of gas produced by the sheep rumen and feces fluid were significant (p<0.05, R≥ 0.986) and a curvilinear regression equation (y = 19.33 ln(x) 6.074)) was fitted to the data. The results also demonstrated that feces fluid can be used as a source of micro-organism for in-vitro gas production digestion of forage.