Table 3.

Rumen VFA, BUN, and rumen fluid pH after 13 (Period 1) and 21 days (Period 2) of feeding three groups of lambs (N = 8) with three different rations: (1) Control: alfalfa:barley (60:40), (2) BC: Control containing 2% of biochar, and (3) Choice: Lambs had a choice between Control and BC

	BC		Choice		Control
Item	Period 1	Period 2	Period 1	Period 2	Period 1	Period 2	SEM1	P-value2	P-value3	P-value4
VFA (mmol/L)
Acetate	76.2a	113.8bc	107.2b	83.9ab	96.5ab	92.4ab	9.6	0.993	0.667	0.014
Propionate	31.5a	42.6b	42.2ab	31.5ab	33.1ab	35.0ab	4.1	0.830	0.809	0.031
Acetate:propionate	2.38	2.70	2.50	2.70	2.86	2.63	0.3	0.758	0.380	0.374
Butyrate	16.2	18.7	22.6	17.2	23.2	20.4	2.2	0.168	0.261	0.153
Isobutyrate	0.5	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.5	0.1	0.778	0.984	0.115
Isovalerate	0.1	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.1	0.517	0.116	0.397
Valerate	2.4ab	3.1a	3.2a	2.4ab	3.2a	2.0b	0.4	0.815	0.111	0.035
Total	127.0	179.1	176.0	135.7	157.0	150.5	14.5	0.980	0.880	0.020
BUN (mg/dL)	21.1	19.1	20.8	20.3	21.1	17.8	1.2	0.783	0.003	0.145
pH	5.8ab	6.0a	5.9ab	5.9ab	6.0a	5.7b	0.1	0.869	0.756	0.046

¹Standard error of the group mean.

²Fixed effect of group.

³Fixed effect of period.

⁴Group × period effect.

^a,b,cMeans within a row with different superscripts differ (P < 0.05).