Technical note: A special apparatus for facilitating the in situ nylon bag measurement of the ruminal degradation of feedstuffs in cattle.

A new apparatus, named Bang-Bang (BB), which can facilitate the in situ nylon bag measurement of ruminal degradation in beef cattle, is described. The BB is an apparatus specially designed as a replacement of the traditional steel chain or flexible plastic tubes for binding the bags used in the in situ nylon bag (ISNB) method. The BB apparatus consists of cylindrical pedestals, sealing clips, nylon string, and nylon bags. A series of in situ rumen incubations using 3 ruminally cannulated beef steers were conducted to compare the BB with the ISNB method by measuring rumen DM degradation kinetics of 12 different feedstuffs commonly offered to beef cattle in China. Greater ( < 0.01) DM disappearance and less ( < 0.01) relative SD (%) were observed with the BB than with the ISNB method. In addition, effective degradability of DM was highly correlated between the 2 methods (ISNB = (1.01 ± 0.04 × BB) - 4.03 ± 2.12; = 0.99, < 0.001, = 12). These results indicate that the BB apparatus can be effectively used to determine the rumen degradation properties of feedstuffs with advantages over the traditional ISNB technique.