Effect of Pelleting on the Chemical Composition and Digestibility of Alfalfa Meal

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Abstract
The digestibility of dehydrated alfalfa meal fed as meal, as pellets, and as pellets reground to the fineness of the original meal was determined with sheep at Beltsville, Maryland. Pelleting the alfalfa meal resulted in a consistent increase in the per- centage of the ether extract fraction as determined by regular analytical procedures but had no effect on the gross energy content. Pelleting or regrinding the pellets had no apparent effect on the digestibility of dry matter, crude fiber, crude protein, NFE, or gross energy. However, there was a highly significant increase in the apparent digestibility of the ether extract fraction of the pellets and ground pellets. The observed increase in digestibility of the ether extract appeared to result from the increase in the apparent ether extract content of the pelleted diets, as the ether extract content of the feces was similar on the three diets. Statistical analyses were used to estimate the carry-over effects, i.e., the effect of a given treatment on the digestibility of nutrients in the sub- sequent trials. No significant carry over effects were observed. Copyright © . .

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