[Effect of the starch sources barley, corn and potatoes and their ration portions on nutrient digestibility and energy utilization in ruminants. 3. Energy utilization in cattle].

With investigations on the influence of different starch origins (barley, maize and raw potatoes) and different portions of the starch origins in the rations (50, 25 and 10% of the net energy fat, cattle (NEFr) content of the rations) on the energy utilization of rations a contribution was made to the development of the energetic feed evaluation within Rostock NEF-system. The experiments were carried out with fattened oxen using the methods of total metabolism technique and duodenal passage measurement by means of reentrant fistula. The nutrition levels amounted to 1.7 and 1.1 of energy maintenance requirement. The utilization of metabolizable energy for deposition of the 9 rations-including 3 variants of starch origins barley, maize and raw potatoes with parts in the rations of 50, 25 and 10%--was measured as 65, 61 and 59%, 61, 60 and 58% as well as 59, 61 and 55%. The energy maintenance requirement amounted to 526 kJ ME/kg LM 0.75.d. The gradations of energy utilization are caused by the connection between energy concentration and utilization of rations in ruminants. With comparable parts of the rations the different starch sources had no relevant influence on the energy utilization of the rations. Despite a wide range of starch plus water soluble carbohydrates (WSC) intake between 896 and 3426 g/animal.d no correlation between the kind of digestion (fermentative or enzymatic) of starch and WSC and the energy utilization of the rations was measurable, because the part of the ruminal digestion amounted to 86.0 and 97.2%. The result presented for the energy and nitrogen metabolism measurements are in good agreement with results of former experiments with 92 rations.