Particle size seems to be an important factor influencing the nutritional value of the feed because it may affect dry matter intake, microbial digestion and utilization of nutrients and animal performance. Some models are described to present different attempts to represent particle size reduction. In general, the diverse approaches behave adequately and provide useful information for production or research. All models, however, demonstrate inaccuracy in some points. The reasons for these failures are discussed and the inclusion of new variables related to particle kinetics, pulses of feed and cell content release to increase accuracy of predictions in future models of feed intake and digestion of ruminants is proposed.
digestibility; feed intake; ruminal kinetics; simulation models
