Anaerobic degradability of organic matter of cattle faeces and a possibility of its utilization.

The content of organic matter labile fractions is negligible in cattle faeces but the content of the anaerobically degradable fraction on the boundary of organic matter lability and stability is analytically utilizable and different. It depends not only on feed quality and quantity but also on all factors of enteric fermentation and processes determining the digestion of ruminants. In the present paper we attempted to describe the digestive tract of ruminants as an anaerobic bioreactor and to calculate its mass balance so that the measurement of a difference in the anaerobic degradability of feeds and faeces at steady state could be theoretically demonstrated as a multipurpose research method not bothering the animals. The first results in eight variants proved that feed quality and other factors influencing processes in the digestive tract of ruminants could be monitored in this way. Obviously, this method does not replace the present methods used for feed digestibility determination.