Environmental factors influencing the nutritive quality of wheat for poultry

The apparent metabolizable energy (AME) of wheat varies greatly, with some values as low as 9.2 MJ/kg dry matter (DM). Low AME wheats cause production losses due not only to their physiological effect in poultry but also to the unpredictable nature of their occurrence which makes least cost formulation difficult. To establish the factors affecting the nutritive quality of wheat for poultry, a total of 81 samples from across Australia over three harvest seasons (1991, 1992 and 1993) were surveyed for their AME and non-starch polysaccharide (NSP) contents. The AME was determined by total collection and the NSP were measured by gas chromatography using the alditol acetate technique. The AME and NSP values differed widely, with the former ranging from 9.2 MJ to 15.0 MJ/kg DM and the latter from 81.3 g to 156.8 g/kg DM.