Digestibility of rumen protected fat in cattle

Abstract

The nutrient digestibility of fat supplemented diets was studied in growing cattle. Hydrogenated triacylglyceride from palm oil (HPO), fractionated triacylglyceride from palm oil (FPO) and calcium soap from palm oil (Ca-PFA) were used as fat sources. On DM basis, about 6.6% of fat were added to the diets. The source of fat did not affect digestibility of carbohydrates and crude protein. Digestibility of organic matter was higher for diet with Ca-PFA than for diets with HPO and FPO, because of increased digestibility of ether extract (EE). The digestibility of EE, calculated by difference to the basal diet, amounted to 9.7, 40.6 and 78.3% for HPO, FPO, and, Ca-PFA respectively. The results show, that high saturated triglycerides with high proportion of stearic acid (> 50% of total FA) or palmitic acid (about 75% of total FA) are only little or insufficiently digested by ruminants. The calculated NEL concentration was 2.4, 10.1 and 16.4 MJ/kg DM for HPO, FPO, and, Ca-PFA respectively.