Table 2.

Chemical compostion of the herbages composing the single forage (perennial ryegrass only) and a taxonomically diverse MF diet of equal proportions of fresh cut herbage of ryegrass, lucerne (Medicago sativa L.), chicory (Cichorium intybus L.), and plantain (Plantago lanceolata L.)

	Herbage
Item	Ryegrass	Lucerne	Plantain	Chicory	SEM
ME, MJ/kg of DM	11.0b	8.8c	10.8b	13.2a	0.3
DM, % as-is	19.7a	21.7a	14.3b	8.7c	0.10
OM, % DM	90.6b	93.8a	88.5c	86.4d	0.8
OMD, % DM	76.9b	58.9c	74.5b	91.9a	2.1
WSC, % DM	7.9c	5.7c	13.1b	22.0a	1.9
NDF, % DM	49.5a	46.0a	30.3b	16.1c	2.2
ADF, % DM	26.1b	35.9a	24.5b	17.5c	1.2
CP, % DM	24.9a	20.3bc	17.9c	21.7b	1.3

^a–cMeans in a row with different superscripts are statistically different (P < 0.05).