A comparison of the digestibility of wheat and sorghum by pigs

Abstract

A comparison was made between the digestibility of wheat and sorghum by pigs using three different methods of ration formulation, viz. grain alone, grain plus meatmeal, and grain plus skim-milk powder. For each type of ration, comparisons were made over the three body-weight ranges of 40-80 lb, 80-120 lb and 120-220 lb.
Dry-matter and organic-matter digestibilities in the wheat rations were either slightly higher than or equal to these values in the corresponding sorghum ration. The sorghum rations had a correspondingly small advantage in the digestibility of nitrogen-free-extract.
The major differences between the grains were in the digestibility of crude protein and crude fibre. Over all the body-weight ranges for all ration formulations the digestibility of the crude protein in the wheat ration was greater than that in the sorghum ration. The mean crude protein digestibility coefficients for the wheat and sorghum rations respectively were 92.3 and 72.2 for the grain-only rations, 89.6 and 77.9 for the grain plus meatmeal rations and 93.7 and 78.4 for the rations containing skim-milk powder.
Differences in digestibility of crude fibre were even more marked, the levels being much greater in the sorghum rations. Mean coefficients for the wheat and sorghum rations respectively were 31.6 and 75.6 for the grain-only rations, 27.2 and 81.6 for the rations containing meatmeal, and 22.9 and 69.6 for the grain plus skim-milk rations.