Agriculture

Variation in Nutritional Value of Western Canadian Feed Ingredients

The variation in nutritional value of ingredients is substantial and of sufficient nutritional and economic concern to be dealt with. Variation among genotypes has sparked efforts to enhance nutritional value by breeding programs to increase the economic value. Variation among samples of ingredients has become increasingly important for the pork and feed industry because the difference between actual and calculated nutritional value of diets must be minimized to reach a predictable performance. The following table shows the ranges for some of the nutrients, on a DM basis, reported in the paper.

 

Ingredient

DE

kcal/kg

 

% CP

% total

LYS

LYS

dig

Total

NSP

 

% NDF

Corn

3490-3970

7.8-11.2

0.26-0.33

53.7-82.0

- -
Barley

2980-3480

9.3-18.2

0.39-0.45

64.9-79.0

15.2-21.9

11.3-25.0

Wheat

3360-4050

11.7-21.0

0.41-0.55

62.3-81.0

8.6-16.6

10.6-13.5

Field Peas

3440-4150

18.5-28.3

1.55-1.99

78.7-85.2

13.3-15.1

11.7-17.8

Canola meal -

35.3-43.5

2.13-2.39

68.3-76.7

17.9-21.4

21.5-26.7

SBM -

47.4-58.5

2.98-3.53

80.1-90.7

22.0-30.3

4.4-9.4

 

DE= digestible energy
CP = crude protein

LYS = lysine

LYS dig = Apparent ileal lysine digestibility

NDF = neutral detergent fibre

Analysis of available energy and amino acid content for each batch of received ingredients is clearly a challenge in feed mills and for on-farm mixing.

Nutrition Update
Volume 12 No.3, February 2002

Source: Zijlstra et al. 2001. Western Nutrition Conference.