Fermentation characteristics of different grain legumes cultivars with the in vitro gas production technique

In the present trial the fermentation characteristics of some grain legumes were studied using the in vitro gas production technique with a view to using them as an alternative protein source to soybean in animal feeding. Three cultivars of lupine, six cultivars of faba bean and seven cultivars of peas were incubated at 39 C with buffalo rumen fluid for 96h. OM degradability and fermentation kinetics were studied. Few differences in fermentation characteristics were observed among the cultivars for each legumes grains. "Scuro di Torre Lama" showed significantly (P<0.01) lower values of dOM and OMCV than the other 5 faba bean cultivars; "Lublanc" had lower (P<0.01) OMCV than the other 2 lupine cultivars and "Spirale" produced less gas and showed a faster kinetics than the other 6 peas cultivars. In vitro fermentation characteristics of the tested grain legumes were comparable to that obtained from soybean meal in our previous in vitro study. The pooled peas showed the significantly (P<0.01) higher gas production (OMCV: 394 rift) and faster fermentation kinetics (Rmax: 12.6 ml/h); the pooled lupine showed the lowest gas production (OMCV: 284 ml/g) and the slowest fermentation process (Rmax: 7.42 ml/h).