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The Nutritive Value of Feeds as Sources of Energy: A Review¹

The Hannah Dairy Research Institute, Kirkhill, Ayr, Scotland

ABSTRACT

Conclusions: Everyone who has been concerned with the problems of measuring the energy exchanges of animals and estimating the nutritive value of feeds has the greatest and most sincere admiration for the work of Kellner and of Armsby. That in almost all countries the methods of feed evaluation Kellner proposed have come into daily use is indicative of the importance and utility of his work. No one would deny, however, that Kellner's methods lead to anomalies or that his concepts of the energy exchange of animals have been superseded in many aspects by the newer concepts of biochemistry. This does not detract from the essential soundness of his work; rather it emphasizes the need for its integration in a more up-to-date framework of biochemical ideas.

It has occurred to several workers in Britain and the Commonwealth that the key to food evaluation and a deeper understanding of the energy nutrition of the ruminant animal lies in the elucidation of the chemical, physical, and biological factors that control the bacterial populations of the rumen and the kinetics and energetics of the subsequent dissimilation of the products arising from bacterial fermentation of the complex carbohydrates of the ruminant's diet. As previously stated, it appears that, although he probably did not appreciate it, Kellner's fiber correction may be regarded as a first, and certainly empirical, approach in this direction. Clearly, as more information on these aspects of ruminant metabolism accrue, the greater will be the possibility of devising methods of evaluating feeds as components of rations. I certainly do not share the pessimism once expressed by Forbes when he doubted whether it would ever be possible to evaluate feeds precisely in terms of energy under the bewildering variety of nutritional circumstances in which our farm livestock exist.

¹ Copies of this review can be purchased from the editor at a price of $1.00 each.

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