Abstract

Nitrogen digestibility values were determined with rats for wheat bran, shorts, red dog and germ from nine different wheat samples. Red dog and germ resulted in similar and the highest values obtained, followed by shorts and then bran. By and large, most samples within a particular by-product series gave similar nitrogen digestibility values and where differences were noted, these in many cases paralleled the results of the other wheat fractions. A good correlation (r = 0.90) was obtained between fecal nitrogen excretion and fecal dry matter excretion when all treatments were compared. A similar comparison between feed intake and fecal nitrogen excretion resulted in a poor correlation (r = 0.33), suggesting that with protein supplements of different composition, feed intake is not a good measure of metabolic fecal nitrogen. The merits of using nitrogen digestibility values as a measure of the nutritional worth of a protein as compared with net protein utilization and protein efficiency ratio values are discussed.

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