Rumen degradability and intestinal digestibility of coconut meal

Effective rumen degradability (ED) and intestinal digestibility (ID) of dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) of an expelling coconut meal sample were determined using in situ techniques. Degradation of coconut meal was characterised by long lag times and slow degradation rates for both DM and CP. Consequently, ED values were also low (51 and 36.5%, respectively). Values of ID of DM were reduced with the rumen incubation time from 81.6% (original feed) to 50.3% (48 h). On the contrary, ID of CP was constant (91.3% on average). Therefore, a content of 58% of rumen-undegraded digestible CP can be estimated for this sample. The apparent disagreement between the high values of both ID of CP and insoluble nitrogen in neutral detergent solution (70.5% of total nitrogen) is discussed.