Variability among four laboratories of the filter bag technique to determine acid and neutral detergent fiber contents in ruminant feeds from Argentina.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the filter bag technique (FBT) in an ANKOM 200 fiber analyzer to assess its accuracy for the determination of acid and neutral detergent fiber (ADF and NDF, respectively) contents in common ruminant feeds from the temperate region of Argentina. The evaluation was done in a ring test of 4 laboratories. The 3 Argentine laboratories were from the College of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires, the College of Agricultural Sciences of the Catholic University of Argentina, and the Balcarce Agricultural Experiment Station of the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA).

Evaluation of two procedures to determine acid and neutral detergent fibers in ruminant feeds of the temperate region of Argentina.

The objective of this work was to compare the traditional Van Soest's procedure to analyze neutral detergent fibers (NDF) and acid detergent fibers (ADF) using filtering crucibles (VS) with a semiautomatic method which uses filter bags in an ANKOM Technology Corp. instrument (ANK). Nine ruminant feeds widely used in the temperate region of Argentina were analyzed: soybean meal expeller, alfalfa, pasture silage, ryegrass, corn silage, weeping lovegrass, tall wheatgrass, guinea grass, and barley grass.