An evaluation of wheat specific weight as a determinant of nutritive value for pigs and poultry

Extract

The north east of Scotland has seen poor harvest seasons in five out of the last ten years. The 1995 season was predicted to be one of the highest yields for a number of years, however, 14 days of continuous rain at harvest resulted in a high proportion of poor quality, sprouted and shrivelled grains, which, if not properly dried, were of dubious micro-biological status. The price of feed wheat is usually determined by the specific weight if it falls below the minimum standard of 72 kg/hl, however, de Lange et al (1993) expressed concern that bushel weight was not a good indicator of DE content. The objective of this experiment was to determine how the commercial assessment of such grains linked to feed value in poultry and the performance of pigs.