ABSTRACT
Ruminants exhibit anatomical variations which are the results of evolutionary trends in favour of specifi c food selectivity and their ability to process low quality feedstuffs that are fi brous and often high in secondary plant metabolites (Attia-Ismail, this volume). A constant supply of substrates is provided by feed consumed by the animal and the large holding capacity of the rumen provides the necessary volume and retention time for complex dietary components (e.g., cellulose and other polysaccharides to
1 Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel. Email: degen@bgu.ac.il 2 College of Grassland Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, China. * Corresponding author: dryland1812@internode.on.net
be degraded and fermented by the rumen microbes). Many salty feedstuffs, even salt tolerant grasses like Distichlis, that are fi brous and tough (shrub species like Atriplex can be woody) show improved utilization when particle size is smaller (El Shaer, this volume). The rumen’s motility patterns allow the processing of low quality plant materials (typical of so many salt tolerant and halophytic feedstuffs).
