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Estimated Net Energy and Total Digestible Nutrient Relationships of Classes of Feeds

Dairy Cattle Research Branch, Animal Husbandry Research Division, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, Maryland

ABSTRACT

The advantages and disadvantages of net energy and total digestible nutrient (TDN) methods of measuring the nutritive value of foods were discussed briefly. Several procedures for converting TDN into estimated net energy (ENE) were reported. The current objective was to determine the effect of the substitution of feed class regressions of ENE on TDN for a general regression of the combined feed classes, on the amount of error involved in converting TDN to ENE values.

Using Morrison's data on ENE and TDN, 21st edition, it appeared that all the feed classes had regression coefficients that differed significantly from the general regression coefficient for the combined classes. The feed classes, silage excepted, apparently had similar slopes for their ENE/TDN relationships and the reason why the general regression line was significantly different was because the feed classes operated at different levels of energy.

Data in Morrison's 22nd edition were treated in the same manner, and results agreed satisfactorily with the previous edition except for silage and green roughage classes. Due to the many changes between editions in TDN or ENE values, the regression lines of these two classes differed significantly from those of the earlier edition. Regression equations of the feed classes developed from data in each edition are given, along with their errors of the estimate.

In converting TDN to ENE values using Morrison's data, the appropriate feed class regression appears to be more accurate than a general regression.