Estimating the extent of degradation of ruminant feeds from a description of their gas production profiles observed in vitro: derivation of models and other mathematical considerations.

Equations to describe gas production profiles, obtained using manual or automated systems for in vitro fermentation of ruminant feeds, were derived from first principles by considering a simple three-pool scheme. The pools represented were the potentially degradable and undegradable feed fractions, and accumulated gases. The equations derived and investigated mathematically were the generalized Mitscherlich, generalized Michaelis-Menten, Gompertz, and logistic. They were obtained by allowing the fractional rate of degradation to vary with time. The equations permit the extent of ruminal degradation (hence the supply of microbial protein to the duodenum) to be evaluated, thus linking the gas production technique to animal production.