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Estimation of ileal nutrient digestibility in native energy and protein feeding stuffs for organic chicken meat production
Project
Project code: 2811OE070
Contract period: 01.04.2012
- 31.12.2014
Budget: 135,158 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research
Currently, the high methionine requirements of growing organic chickens can only be met by the use of high protein feeding stuffs from conventional production (< 5% of the diet). Thus, the knowledge on the contents and digestibility of nutrients of organic feeding stuffs has to be enlarged to fulfil the demand of organic broilers on long-term.
In the first step nutrient contents of several organic feeding stuffs have been analyzed (11 energy feeding stuffs - wheat, barley, rye, triticale, naked barley, naked oats, buckwheat, spelt, common millet, brown top millet, whole corn silage, 1 protein feeding stuff - strip waste of lentils, 3 feeding stuffs rich in crude fibre - untreated and treated clover silage, dried alfalfa leaves). In the second step, ileal digestibility for crude protein and amino acids was determined for slow growing broilers in weeks 3 and 6 of life.
In general, analyzed contents of crude protein and amino acids of investigated feeding stuffs have been somewhat lower than for the respective feeding stuffs from conventional production. Strip waste of lentils showed the highest protein content, followed by clover silage and dried alfalfa leaves, which had also the highest crude fibre content. The highest methionine contents were observed for common millet, brown top millet, clover silages and dried alfalfa leaves (about 3 g/kg). Clover silages, dried alfalfa leaves and strip waste of lentils revealed the highest lysine contents (about 10 g/kg). Digestibility of amino acids was about in the same range as for the respective feeding stuffs from conventional production. Quite poor amino acids digestibility was observed for spelt and clover silages. Crude protein and amino acids digestibility was not different between week 3 and 6 of life. The highest content of digestible methionine (about 3g /kg) was calculated for brown top millet and dried alfalfa leaves. But, the high crude fibre content of dried alfalfa leaves increased feed volume resulting in a lower nutrient intake und thus in a reduced growth rate of birds.
The results illustrate the potential of organic mass feeding stuffs to contributing methionine and, by this, help to optimizing the methionine supply of growing chickens.
Section overview
Subjects
- Animal nutrition
- Organic Farming
Framework programme
Federal Organic Farming Scheme and other forms of sustainable agriculture (BÖLN)
