Metabolizable energy content of cereal grains in poultry. Recent yearly surveys in France

Abstract

Ten years ago surveys concerning the quality of cereal grains took place in the main areas of French production. Chemical composition analyses and apparent metabolizable energy value (AME) determination were carried out in poultry. Wheat, barley and maize had respectively 11, 6 and 8 annual surveys carried out, while sorghum, oats, triticale and rye had 4. The following means were obtained for AME (kcal/kg DM) : sorghum : 3844, maize : 3726, wheat : 3458, triticale : 3411, two rowed spring barley (2RSB) : 3227, two rowed winter barley (2RWB) : 3207, six rowed barley (6RB) : 3132, rye : 3131, white oats : 2879, black oats : 2660. Between years, variation of AME in adult cockerels was found to be significant for wheat, barley and maize. Mean coefficients of variation were, 1.19 % for wheat, 1.46 % for 2 RSB, 1.68 % for 2 RWB,1.93 % for 6 RB, and 0.70 % for maize. In all production areas and for all cereals no significant difference was found between samples for AME values. From available data of proximate analysis no predictive equation was performed except for oats and sorghum.