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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 Alberta Agriculture, Food 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 Alberta Agriculture, Food 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.

Barley Type :
Moisture % :
Protein % :
Acid Detergent Fibre % :
This information maintained by Sam Jaikaran
Document Last/Reviewed July 29, 1999
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