Plant structure in relation to ease of physical breakdown in the mouth and rumen
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Date
1993-09
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University of Wales
Abstract
Grassland species were grown in the field and glasshouse
and research was carried out for two years to investigate plant
vascular structure in relation to physical breakdown in the mouth
and rumen.
Plant part morphology, vascular structural proportion
and arrangement, fresh plant diet eating rate by sheep and particle
breakdown characteristics were recorded.
Anatomical differences, especially vascular tissue
arrangement, appeared to be a major cause of the differences in
intake rate between legumes and grasses.
Four legumes did not
differ significantly in terms of intake rate but differed
significantly in terms of the proportion of vascular tissues,
neutral detergent fibre content and digestibility.
Tropical
grasses had a higher proportion of vascular tissues, higher
neutral detergent fibre content, lower digestibility, lower intake
rate and were chewed into smaller particles than temperate grasses.
Legumes were eaten faster and had larger particles after chewing
than grasses.
Legume and grass particles had a similar number
of perforations or ruptures per particle.
Legume leaf petiole and stem particles were longer than
leaflet particles and increased the overall mean particle length
of the chewed material.
Petioles and stems are, therefore,
important in legume particle size reduction in the mouth and rumen.
Regardless of grass species, the veins of the leaf sheaths were
more widely spaced than those in leaf blades, but the two plant
parts were chewed to a similar particle size.
Despite having a high proportion of stem and neutral
detergent fibre, lucerne and spurrey were eaten quickly, showing
the advantage, in respect of intake rate, of having thin pliable
and/or fragile stems.
The results of the present project indicate that the
physical structure of plants, especially the arrangement of the
vascular tissue, and plant morphology have great influence on the
physical breakdown of the plants in the mouth and rumen.
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Keywords
Plant structure