VCS 228 Ruminant Nutrition

What are the 3 steps in obtaining nutrients in the ruminants?

Ingestion, digestion, absorption

Oral anatomy of the ruminant?

Prehensile tongue, dental pad

What is the purpose of the dental pad?

It is a pad on the roof of their mouth that replaces the upper incisors because they do not have any

What are the 4 mechanical factors of digestion?

Mastication, deglutition, rumination, eructation

What is mastication?

Grinding roughage and concentrate

What is deglutition?

Swallowing of partially ground cud

What is rumination?

Chewing of cud in 4 different phases

What is eructation?

Elimination of CO2 and CH4 from the GI tract

What are the 4 phases of rumination?

Regurgitation, remastication, reinsalivation, redeglutition

What is regurgitation?

Recently of cud, the liquid portion from reticulum to mouth

What is remastication?

Regrinding of the cud

What is reinsalivation?

Additional salivary secretion to the bolus

What is redeglutiton?

Reswallowing of the bolus from the mouth into the oesophagus

What are types of forages?

Grass/alfalfa (fresh pasture, hay), silage

What are types of concentrates?

Non-forage nutrient sources- cereal grains, protein supplement, by-products

Where does fermentation digestion occur?

Rumen, reticulum, omasum, large intestines

Where does enzymatic digestion occur?

Abomasum, small intestine

What are the 3 layers of the rumen?

Gaseous phase, liquid phase, solid phase

What are the 5 primary nutrients?

Protein, carbs, fats, water, vitamins/minerals

What occurs in the rumen?

Feed degradation by bacteria, Protozoa, and fungi

What occurs in the reticulum?

Heavy substances settle

What occurs in the omasum?

Absorption of volatile fatty acids, water, minerals and electrolytes

What happens in the abomasum?

Gastric enzymes and HCl

Crude protein =

Quantity of nitrogen

What will indicate if a feed will satisfy animal's protein needs?

Crude protein

What synthesizes microbial protein from all nitrogen containing substances ingested?

Rumen microbes

How much of crude protein should be natural protein?

At least 2/3

No more than how much CP amount should be non-protein nitrogen sources?

1/3

How much protein does bacteria contain?

65%

More than 80% utilizes ammonia as what?

Nitrogen source for growth

Rumen bacteria break down what?

Fatty acids

For cattle on average what percent of their bodyweight do they eat in dry matter each day.

2-3%

Measures total plant fiber?

Neutral detergent fiber (NDF)

Measures plant cell contents?

Neutral detergent solubles (NDS)

Measures indigestible parts of a plant?

Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF)

Total energy released through oxidation?

Gross energy (GE)

Gross energy (GE) minus energy lost in feces?

Digestible energy (DE)

Digestible energy (DE) minus energy lost in urine and methane gas?

Metabolized energy (ME)