A comparison of the suitability of different models for describing the gas production kinetics of whole-crop wheat
Menkeet al. (1979), Beuvinket al. (1992) and Theodorouet al. (1994) developed techniques for measuring the time course of gas production of foods fermentedin vitrowith rumen fluid. These techniques require description of the fermentation profile with an appropriate mathematical model. Although several authors have used these techniques to study the ruminal fermentation of foods, little information is available on the suitability of the model chosen for describing the fermentation profile of the food under study. In this study, the models of Ørskov and McDonald (1979), Franceet al. (1993) and Beuvink and Kogut (1993) were fitted to thein vitrogas production profiles of 10 whole-crop wheat (WCW) forages (cv.Slepjner) to determine the model most suited to describing the data.