It was aimed to evaluate in this work the effects of physical characteristics (density, solubility, average particle size and water holding capacity) on in situ effective degraded fraction of the dry matter of soybean meal, canola meal, peanut meal, and cottonseed meal. It was also evaluated the passage rate of solids using four Santa Ines castrated wethers cannulated in the rumen. Samples with 100 g of each protein meal marked with sodium dichromate were put in the rumen and kept in there during six times of incubation (0, 3, 6, 12, 24, and 48 hours). Fecal collection times were 0, 9, 12, 24, 36, 48, 72 and 96 hours. Parameters of solubility and water holding capacity changed the effectively degraded fraction. The lowest density and the highest proportion of the cellular wall of canola meal provided the lowest passage rate of this protein source. Only water holding capacity influenced solid passage rate of the evaluated ingredients. The solubility, water holding capacity, average particle size and density should be used in the diet feed evaluation for degradation and ruminal metabolism studies. Introduction of new physical characteristics in the ingredient library of food evaluation system may help to interpret and to predict metabolic parameters.
average particle size; canola meal; peanut meal; sheep; water holding capacity
