Table 6.

Equine caecal, colon (right ventral) and faecal D and L-lactate, pH and buffering capacity (BC) after three weeks of adaptation to forage based diets differing in fibre composition and maturity ^1,2.

	Diets			SEM	p-Values
	Diet C	Diet G	Diet L		Diet	Segment	Diet × Segment
D-lactate (mmol/L)
Caecum	0.8	0.6	0.3	0.37	0.174	0.025	0.111
Colon	1.6	0.4	0.8
Faeces	1.4	1.9	1.0
L-lactate (mmol/L)
Caecum	1.1	0.5	0.3	0.23	0.022	0.640	0.127
Colon	1.3	0.3	0.7
Faeces	0.7	0.7	0.6
pH
Caecum	7.0 A	7.0 A	7.0 A	0.08	0.012	0.027	0.002
Colon	6.9 A,B	7.0 A	7.1 A,B
Faeces	6.7 a,B	6.5 a,B	7.2 b,B
BC (g lactic acid/kg dry digesta)
Caecum	353	590	387	92.4	0.071	<0.001	0.499
Colon	513	709	471
Faeces	78	77	48

¹ Values are least square means with the pooled standard error of the mean, n 5. ² Diet C: concentrate (oats, soybean meal) and late harvested grass haylage (35:65 energy ratio), Diet G: early and late harvested grass haylage (80:20) (+small amount soybean meal), Diet L: lucerne haylage and late harvested grass haylage (80:20). ^a,b Mean values within a row with unlike superscript letters were significantly different (p < 0.05). ^A,B Mean values within a parameter and column with unlike superscript letters were significantly different (p < 0.05).