Prediction of rumen fiber pool in cattle from dietary, fecal, and animal variables.

Feed intake control in ruminants is based on the integration of physical constraints and metabolic feedbacks. Physical constraints are related to the fill caused by the weight or volume of digesta in the reticulo-rumen. The amount of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) in the rumen (RNDF) may be used as an indicator of rumen fill. The objective of this study was to develop equations predicting RNDF from diet and animal characteristics using a meta-analysis technique. A treatment mean data set (n=314) was obtained from 84 studies, in which rumen pool size and diet digestibility were determined in lactating cows (n=231) or growing cattle (n=83). The data were analyzed using linear and nonlinear mixed models. Intake, rumen pool size, and fecal output of NDF were scaled to body weight (BW)(1.0). Due to the heterogeneous nature of dietary NDF, predictions of RNDF based on NDF intake were not precise. Predictions were markedly improved by dividing NDF into potentially digestible and indigestible fractions, because rumen turnover time of indigestible NDF was 2.7 times longer than that of potentially digestible NDF. At equal NDF intake, RNDF was negatively associated with dietary crude protein concentration and positively with the proportion of concentrate in the diet. Models based on fecal NDF output generally performed better than those based on NDF intake, probably because the effects of intrinsic characteristics of dietary cell walls and associative effects of dietary components collectively influence fecal NDF output. The model based on fecal NDF output was improved by including dietary concentration of forage NDF in the model, reflecting slower turnover of forage NDF compared with concentrate NDF. The curvilinear relationship between fecal NDF output and RNDF could be described by a quadratic, Mitscherlich, or power function equation, which performed better than the quadratic or Mitscherlich equation. In addition to fecal NDF output and dietary concentration of forage NDF, animal and forage type had significant effects on RNDF. At the same fecal NDF output, growing cattle had a smaller RNDF than dairy cattle. Increased proportion of alfalfa or corn silages in forage decreased RNDF and increased proportion of tropical forages decreased it. It is concluded that RNDF can be predicted precisely from intake or fecal output data, and that predicted RNDF can be a useful tool in understanding the interplay between physical and metabolic factors regulating feed intake in ruminants.