Marcondes et al., 2009. Rev. Bras. Zootec., 38 (11): 2247-2257

The objective of the present study was to determine the A and B fractions and the rumen degradation rate (Kd) of dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) in 27 feeds and determine the intestinal digestibility of non-degraded rumen protein by the three steps and mobile nylon bag techniques. Rice meal, babassu meal, wheat and corn germ, ground corn cobs and straw, ground corn cobs, corn, citrus pulp, sorghum, starea and cottonseed meal with 28, 38 and 46% CP, peanut meal, sunflower meal, soybean meal, bean byproduct, corn gluten, soybean grain, dry yeast, corn gluten meal, cacao hulls, coffee hulls, soybean hulls, elephant-grass silage and corn silage were sampled. To obtain the ruminal degradation of DM and CP, 10 × 20 cm nylon bags with incubation times of 0, 2, 4, 6, 12, 16, 24, 48 and 72 hours were used. The intestinal digestibility was determined by the three steps and the mobile nylon bag techniques. The ruminal degradation data of the dry matter and crude protein were similar to the literature. The three step technique did not estimate properly the intestinal digestibility of all the feeds evaluated, excepted for the protein feeds. Most feeds had total CP digestibility close to 90%, excepted for soybean, coffee and cacao hulls and elephant-grass and corn silage. The three step technique correctly estimated the intestinal digestibility of the protein feeds, but the equation IDCP (%) = –5,1906 + 1,1053 × X is recommended to correct the digestibility obtained by the three steps technique for non-protein feeds.