Ruminal and Postruminal Starch Digestion in Sheep

Two experiments were conducted to measure starch digestion in the rumen and posterior to the rumen of sheep at different levels of intake. With increased starch intakes as much as 35% of the starch escaped rumen fermentation and was digested posterior to the rumen. Postruminal starch digestion in these wethers was highly efficient with over-all ADC's as high as 96% in experiment 1 and 99% in experiment 2. The capacity of these wethers to digest starch in the rumen may have become limiting, but the over-all capacity was not exceeded with starch intakes up to 586 gm. per day.