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Eight rumen-fistulated steers were randomly assigned to medium- and high-concentrate diets supplemented with 0, .75, 2.5 and 5% of either sodium bicarbonate or an artificial saliva salts mixture. Each animal was fed for 21 d at 75 g dry matter/kg body weight . 75. Rates of soybean meal (SBM) degradation were predicted by adjusting digestion rates in nylon bags with respective passage rates of chromium-mordanted SBM particles. Measures of rumen fermentation were made during the incubation period. Liquid dilution rate was determined with 51Cr-EDTA. The high-concentrate diet produced higher (P less than .05) liquid dilution rates than the medium-concentrate diet, but there were no differences in response to the two buffers (P greater than .05). The liquid dilution rates averaged across diets for 0, .75, 2.5 and 5% levels of buffer were 6.2, 6.3, 8.5 and 8.7%/h (SE = .03) and passage rates for SBM were 5.2, 5.2, 6.5 and 6.7%/h (SE = .025). The 2.5 and 5% levels of buffer increased the rate of disappearance of SBM from the nylon bags and buffers fed at these levels also increased rumen pH and NH3-N concentration. Rumen pH was correlated with N disappearance from the nylon bag (r = .903, P less than .05). Buffer levels did not affect degradation rates of SBM.

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The aim of this study was to set up direct and indirect casual effects between body weight and biometric measurements of breeding gilts at growing and finishing stages of production using path analysis. Body weights of 50 crossbred (Landrace x Large White) female pigs were measured along with four biometric traits (body length, heart girth, flank-to-flank, height-atwithers) on each animal during growing and finishing stages of production. A computed mean of 1150 measurements per biometric trait taken during the entire study was subjected to path coefficient analysis using the correlation matrix approach. High positive and significant correlations (>84.3%) were observed between different biometric measurements. However, path analysis of these traits on body weight of pigs revealed that heart girth is the major contributor to the body weight of the pig with a higher amount of direct effect of 0.6539 (R 2 = 95.25). The direct effects of body length and flank-to-flank measurements on body weight of the pigs were less. These traits mostly affect body weight indirectly via heart girth. Finding of the present investigation demonstrated that heart girth was the most important contributor to body weight of grower and finisher pigs and thus was recommended for quick estimation of body weight of breeding gilts under field or market conditions than other biometric traits. In addition, it could also be used for the construction of selection index for breeding gilts at both phases of growth.

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