The present work aimed to determine the nitrogen and carbohydrates fractions and to estimate the respective digestion rates for corn silage, Tifton-85 bermudagrass hay, elephantgrass silage and soybean meal. The contents of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), ash, total carbohydrates (TC), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), NDF corrected for ash and protein (NDFcp), indigestible NDF (INDF), non-protein nitrogen compounds (NPN) and B1+B2, B3 and C nitrogen fractions, nonfiber carbohydrates and B2 and C carbohydrates fractions were determined. TC digestion rates were estimated by in vitro gas production technique, while those of protein fractions were obtained by ruminal proteases utilization. The corn silage and elephantgrass silage showed high NPN proportion, the Tifton-85 bermudagrass hay showed high proportions of B1+B2 and B3 fractions and the soybean meal by high B1+B2 fraction. Corn silage and soybean meal showed high CNF proportion (37.05 and 75.75%) and the Tifton-85 bermudagrass hay and the elephantgrass silage showed high B2 and C fractions (51.20 and 51.70%, 41.77 and 33.56%). The digestion rates of B1+B2 and B3 protein fractions ranged from .0469 to .1512 h-1 for soybean meal and elephantgrass silage and from .0081 to .0757 h-1 for the Tifton-85 bermudagrass hay and elephantgrass silage, respectively. The estimated digestion rates for NFC and B2 fractions ranged from .1294 to .1905 h-1 and from .0254 to .0300 h-1 for Tifton-85 bermudagrass hay and corn silage, respectively.
carbohydrate; kinetic; protein; ruminant
