The effect of glucose treatment on ruminal dry matter and crude protein degradability characteristics of soybean meal, full fat soybean and soybean seed.

A high ruminal protein degradation is especially undesirable in high producing dairy cows and beef cattle, since these animals have high requirements of protein and the amount of protein that is not degraded by ruminal microorganisms and therefore enters the small intestine (so-called UDP = undegraded protein) is crucial. In this study, Merino rams with ruminal fistulas were used (n = 4) to determine the effect of glucose treatment of soybean meal (SBM), full fat soybean (FFSB) and soybean seed (SBS) on the ruminal degradability of dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP). All these feedstuffs were grinded, diluted with water and heated (2 h; 100 degrees C) either without or with supplementation of 2 or 3% glucose (20 or 30 g glucose per kg dry feed).