Bridging farmers’ perceptions and laboratory science: wheat bran quality assessment in smallholder dairy systems: technical note

This study was conducted to evaluate wheat bran (WB) quality characteristics based on particle size distribution and to assess how farmers' rankings align with laboratory results. Thirty smallholder dairy farmers qualitatively scored five WB types from five major wheat flour processing factories in Tigray, Ethiopia, on a scale of 1 to 4 for water holding capacity (WHC) and nutritive value (1 = poor to 4 = excellent), as well as the risk of digestive disorders (1 = high to 4 = very low). Laboratory analyses included physical parameters, chemical analysis, and in vitro digestibility. The geometric mean particle size of WB ranged between 908 to 1,103 μm, and the WHC between 2.15 to 2.90 mL/g. Farmers' scores for nutritive value correlated positively with crude protein (rspearman's = 0.347; p<0.05) and effective rumen degradability of crude protein (rspearman's = 0.291; p<0.05), and negatively with particle size (rspearman's = -0.553; p<0.05). Scores for WHC positively correlated with particle size (rspearman's = 0.526; p<0.05). The present findings revealed that particle size distribution is the predominant qualitative selection criteria for farmers (e.g., on the market) to assess WB quality, and this qualitative appreciation is to some extent related to chemical characteristics and rumen degradability.