Barley Digestible Energy and Amino Acids for Swine Feed Calculator
Determining barley feed value for swine
The feeding value of barley for
swine can vary by over 30% between samples. Digestible energy and amino acids
make up the greatest part of feed value. Up to now it has been difficult and
costly to get reliable analyses for these nutrient components. Some of the
procedures also take a long time to complete and by the time the results become
available the barley is already fed. Now there is a quick method of accurately
estimating digestible energy and total amino acids from simple laboratory
analyses. If you have lab analyses for moisture, protein and acid detergent
fibre you can use this simple calculator to accurately calculate digestible
energy and total amino acids for both hulled and hulless barley. When this
information is used in feed formulation it will help you to use your barley more
efficiently in feeding pigs.
This calculator was made possible through the research work done by Prairie
Swine Center Inc. at Saskatoon and by Agriculture and Rural Development at Edmonton. The regression equation for digestible energy is based
on digestibility studies conducted with several samples of specially grown
barley at the Prairie Swine Center Inc. They showed a direct relationship
between acid detergent fibre content and digestible energy for swine. The
regression equations for amino acids were developed from amino acid analyses of
barley samples specially selected from several thousands of samples collected
over many years from areas of western Canada. Amino acid analyses were conducted
at the soils and animal nutrition lab of Agriculture and Rural Development in Edmonton.
On this page, enter the moisture, acid detergent fibre, and protein contents
of your barley sample. The calculator automatically calculates digestible energy
for swine and the percentages of 18 amino acids in the sample. This can be done
on “as fed” or “dry matter” basis. Click on the “calculate“ button and the
results will be displayed on the next page.
