Apparent digestibility of amino acids, gross energy and starch in corn, sorghum, wheat, barley, oat groats and wheat middlings for growing pigs.

Apparent nutrient digestibilities of yellow-dent corn, low-tannin sorghum, hard red winter wheat, barley, oat groats and wheat middlings were determined near the end of the small intestine and over the total digestive tract of growing pigs. Gross energy digestibilities for corn, sorghum and oat groats were similar; wheat had a slightly lower (P less than .05) digestibility, followed by barley (P less than .05), with wheat middlings being the least (P less than .05) digestible. About 7% of the gross energy in corn, sorghum, wheat and oat groats was digested in the large intestine, compared with 11% for barley and 17% for wheat middlings. The starch in all products was essentially 100% digestible by the end of the small intestine. Ileal amino acid digestibilities tended to be highest for wheat and oat groats, followed by corn, sorghum, barley and wheat middlings. The range in ileal digestibilities was 73.8 (sorghum) to 84.2% (wheat) for lysine, 69.6 (corn) to 81.4% (wheat) for tryptophan and 63.4 (wheat middlings) to 77.9% (oat groats) for threonine. Amino acid digestibilities determined over the total tract were generally higher than ileal digestibilities; however, values for lysine, methionine and phenylalanine were generally lower, indicating a net synthesis of these amino acids in the large intestine.