Determination and prediction of the net energy content of wheat bran for pregnant sow

ABSTRACT

Two experiments were conducted to determine net energy (NE) values of wheat bran ingredients and develop a prediction equation for NE of wheat bran. In each experiment, 12 multiparous pregnant sows were allocated to two 3 × 6 Youden squares with three consecutive periods and six diets in each square. The study consisted of six diets, including a corn-soybean meal basal diet and five diets formulated with 29.2% wheat bran. Each period lasted for 10 d, with 5 d allocated for adaptation and followed by 5 d for heat production measurement. Sows were provided feed at 604 kJ/kg BW^0.75·d⁻¹. On day 10, sows underwent fasting to measure fasting heat production. Results indicated that the inclusion of wheat bran in the diets significantly reduced digestibility of energy and nutrients in (p < 0.05). The average net energy (NE) content of wheat bran was determined to be 8.8 MJ/kg DM. A regress equation NE = 7.968 + 0.28 × CP + 0.607 × EE − 0.782 × ash − 0.05 × hemicellulose (R² = 0.98, p < 0.01) was found to accurately predit the NE value when feeding pregnant sows with wheat bran-based diets. In conclusion, the net energy content of wheat bran fed to pregnant sows ranged from 7.24 to 10.67 MJ/kg DM and can be effectively estimated using proximate analysis methods.

KEYWORDS:

• Heat production
• net energy
• prediction equation
• pregnant sow
• wheat bran

Acknowledgments

We thank all employees of the Fengning Experimental Base of China Agricultural University (Beijing, China) for helpful technical assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was financially supported by National Key R&D Program of China [2021YFD1300201, 2021YFD1300202], Bureau of Animal husbandry of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs [16190294].