Assessing the feeding value of wheat for broilers

The study aimed to compare different methods assessing the nutritive value of wheat grain for broiler chickens, measured as growth performance, including wheat chemical composition, metabolizable energy (ME), starch digestibility (SD) and rate of starch digestion (RSD). Samples from wheat cultivars Bennington and Siskin were chosen for the study due to their different fibre but similar starch contents. Two cold pelleted diets including 630 g/kg of each of the wheat cultivar samples were fed ad libitum to broiler chickens 7 to 28 days of age to male Ross 308 broiler chickens. Each diet was fed to 16 raised floor pens following complete randomisation. Birds fed a diet based on Bennington were heavier, ate more and grew faster than those fed a Siskin-based diet (P<0.001). Bennington-fed birds tended (P<0.01) to have a lower feed conversion ratio (FCR). The diet based on Bennington had greater ME (P<0.05) than those based on Siskin, but no differences (P>0.05) in nitrogen and fat retention coefficients were observed (P>0.05). Compared to Siskin, Bennington-based diet had greater SD in proximal (P=0.017) and distal (P=0.050) ileal segments, but no differences were detected in RSD (P>0.05). Bennington-fed birds had greater daily consumption of ME, dry matter, fat, starch (P<0.001) and nitrogen (P=0.007). The results suggest that in this study not RSD but ME and intake of digestible nutrients described better the feeding value of wheat for broilers.