Variation of lupin protein degradation in ruminants studied in situ and using chemical protein fractions

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the variability in in situ CP degradation characteristics of 15 batches lupin grains from nine genotypes in a standardised approach. This study also investigated whether differences in CP degradation can be described by protein fractionation using the Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System (CNCPS) and also whether thermal processing of lupins has an effect on CP degradation in the rumen and analysed protein fractions. The rising political and consumer demand for milk products from dairy production systems based on domestic protein sources and the wide range of lupin types and varieties that can be chosen as protein feed in dairy nutrition requires research to determine the variability in CP degradation characteristics in the rumen. For CP degradation measurements, ground grains were incubated in the rumen of three lactating Jersey cows fitted with a ruminal cannula for different times from 2 to 48 h, and the washing loss of non-incubated samples was also measured. Protein fractions were analysed according to CNCPS and used for the estimation of ruminally degraded protein. In situ CP degradation parameters varied widely between untreated samples. The mean value for the washout fraction was 29.3% (from 16.4% to 43.6%). The potentially degradable fraction averaged 70.5% (from 55.6% to 83.7%), hence maximal degradation of CP was close to completeness. Mean degradation rate was 16.6%/h (from 12.6 to 21.0%/h). Variation in estimated parameters led to variation in the effective degradation (ED) averaging 76.6% (from 67.3% to 83.0%) when calculated assuming a ruminal outflow of 8%/h. Thermal treatment of lupins induced changes in degradation characteristics, primarily by lowering degradation rates, and also led to a significant reduction in ED. The ED calculated from analysed protein fractions averaged 10 percentage points higher than ED calculated from in situ parameters for untreated grains. The ED based on protein fractionation was also reduced by heat treatment, but the correlation with in situ based ED was poor. It can be concluded that the variation in ED indicates a potential to increase the amount of rumen undegraded protein without additional chemical or physical treatment and the effect of genetic factors and agronomic practices on ED of lupin grains should be investigated in systematic studies in the future.