Nutritive value of cereal straw

Abstract

Approximately 250 samples of cereal straw were analysed for the digestibility of organic matter in vitro. From known relationships between digestibility in vitro and metabolism experiments in vivo, it was calculated that the digestibility in vivo of the straw samples ranged from 28 to 50%. For one and the same cultivar the range was 18 percentage units. The content of metabolizable energy in the straw samples ranged from 3.9 to 8.3 MJ per kg of organic matter.