Digestibility Studies by Means of Chromic Oxide, Lignin and Total Collection Techniques with Sheep1

A complete pelleted ration with chromic oxide included at 0.5% was fed to six sheep on an experiment of Latin square design. Comparison of dry matter digestibility as determined by the total collection, chromic oxide ratio, and lignin ratio methods, showed close agreement between coefficients determined by total collection and chromic oxide ratio methods; the lignin ratio method resulted in low coefficients. These results were obtained when total feces were collected from each sheep over 10-day periods. Coefficients determined from single-day feces samples by the chromic oxide ratio method agreed well with those obtained by the total collection method. The standard deviation of single day coefficients was only 1.10. Chromic oxide recovery during the experiment averaged 100.7% lignin recovery 90.2%.