Cinética da fermentação ruminal de diferentes genótipos de milho e tamanho de partículas por meio da técnica de produção acumulativa de gases

The objective was to evaluate the in vitro ruminal degradation kinetics of three corn genotypes (flint, semi-flint and semi-dent) in four particle sizes (greater than 1400 µm; between 1400 and 850 µm; between 850 and 420 µm; and smaller than 420 µm), by the semi-automatic cumulative gas production technique. There was an effect of genotype and particle size on total gas production and colonization time. Flint corn in smaller particles provides better ruminal fermentation parameters, with higher total gas production, higher degradation rate of potentially degradable fraction of carbohydrates and shorter lag time.