Previous work as shown that incubation sequence has no effect on the degradation profile of feeds in the rumen of cattle and sheep. However, compared to the rumen the equine caecum is small, digesta passage rate through it is fast and total digesta volumes can vary widely. Consequently, this experiment examines the effect of bag incubation sequence on degradation co-efficients in situ in the equine caecum.

Four caecally fistulated Welsh cross pony geldings (approx LW 250 kg) were offered ad libitum grass hay (DM: 938, CP: 70; NDF: 728) plus 30 g/h/d of a horse mineral supplement. Duplicate incubation bags (monofilament polyester, 6.5 x 20 cm, 41 um pores, 16 mg/cm2 sample size) containing a commercial horse concentrate (DM: 918, CP:151, NDF: 403) were incubated in the caecum for fixed times according to both a forward (0,3,5,16,8,24,48) or reverse (48,24,8,16,5,3,0) incubation sequence.