Table 4. Effects of TMR and SF system on ruminal fermentation characteristics1.
| Time interval2 | 1.5 h | 3 h | 4.5 h | SEM | P-value (FS) |
P-value (Time) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Item/Feed type | TMR | SF | TMR | SF | TMR | SF | 1.5 h | 3 h | 4.5 h | ||
| Volatile fatty acids | |||||||||||
| Total VFA (mM) | 122.8 | 95.4 | 114.4 | 118.9 | 104.7 | 126.8 | 9.7 | 0.962 | 0.009 | 0.650 | 0.032 |
| Acetate, % | 55.0 | 58.4 | 56.0 | 54.0 | 58.6 | 55.3 | 1.2 | 0.337 | 0.007 | 0.103 | 0.008 |
| Propionate, % | 25.0 | 22.5 | 24.0 | 25.2 | 22.5 | 24.1 | 0.9 | 0.876 | 0.008 | 0.160 | 0.088 |
| Butyrate, % | 12.7 | 11.8 | 13.2 | 13.0 | 13.1 | 13.2 | 0.9 | 0.649 | 0.332 | 0.877 | 0.977 |
| Isobutyrate, % | 0.6 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 0.1 | < .0001 | < .0001 | < .0001 | < .0001 |
| Valerate, % | 1.9 | 1.4 | 2.0 | 1.8 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 0.1 | 0.048 | < .0001 | 0.064 | 0.072 |
| Isovalerate,% | 4.7 | 4.5 | 4.1 | 4.6 | 3.4 | 4.2 | 0.2 | 0.027 | 0.352 | 0.110 | 0.006 |
| Acetate: Propionate | 2.2 | 2.6 | 2.3 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 2.3 | 0.1 | 0.921 | 0.001 | 0.124 | 0.038 |
| NH3-N, mg/L | 18.9 | 9.2 | 14.9 | 14.8 | 9.4 | 15.1 | 1.8 | 0.124 | < .0001 | 0.925 | 0.005 |
| pH | 6.5 | 6.7 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 6.6 | 6.3 | 0.1 | 0.899 | 0.067 | 0.808 | 0.060 |
1 Values are LS means with standard error
2 Sampling time after morning feeding; TMR- Total Mixed Ration; SF- Separate Feeding; SEM- Standard Error of the Means
FS–Feeding system