Microbial activity in grass-fed in-vitro continuous cultures in response to infusion of graded levels of soluble sugars

Abstract

Novel lines of high sugar ryegrass have been shown to increase the efficiency of N use and milk production in zero-grazed cattle (Miller et al., 1999). An experiment was carried out to determine whether this was in part due to an increase in the efficiency of microbial protein synthesis in response to the amount and availability of water soluble carbohydrate (WSC) increasing the balance between energy and nitrogen supply to the rumen microbial population.