TRUE METABOLIZABLE ENERGY VALUES FOR POULTRY OF CANADIAN BARLEYS MEASURED BY BIOASSAY AND PREDICTED FROM PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL DATA

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Abstract
Canadian barleys, having bulk densities ranging from 40.0 to 70.2 kg/hl, were assayed for true metabolizable energy (TME), gross energy, ether extract, crude fibre, protein, ash, calcium, phosphorus, starch and sugar. Regression analysis showed that from 76 to 84% of the variation in TME values was accounted for by published techniques for predicting metabolizable energy values from chemical composition data. The TME value of barley was correlated with bulk density (r = 0.912 at 29 df) and crude fibre (−0.904 at 30 df). There were also highly significant (P < 0.01) correlations between TME and starch (0.833), starch + sugar (0.838) and ash (−0.758). Earlier studies have not found close relationships between metabolizable energy and the aforementioned physical and chemical parameters. The probable explanation is that TME values are not affected by variations in feed intake associated with differences in palatability whereas the earlier energy measures were subject to this form of variation.