Abstract:
THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF NAKED OATS: PRELIMINARY RESULTS B.S. Takhar* and D.J. Farrell* High-yielding cultivars of crown rust are being selected cultivars have oil contents of of over 18% with lysine up to experiments with chickens and naked oats (avena nuda) with high resistance to in South Austa(A.Barr, pers, comm.). Some up to 14%, others have crude protein contents 0.8%. We report here preliminary results of layers. Shown in Table 1 are four cultivars of naked oats with mtabolizable energy (ME) and fat digestibility values determined with chicks (7020d) and adult cockerels, Table 1. Copsition, fat digestibility (% DM) and metabolizable energy (MJ/kg DM) of naked oats and a hulled-oat cultivar It is clear that there is variation in fat digestibility and ME values within cultivars and between young and old birds. ME is high and consistently higher for cockerels corrpared to chicks. In asecondexperiment, least-cost diets were forrrulated to broiler chick specifications using naked oats (74%) as the sole grain for four cultivars (l-4) each bulked across different growing sites. Four replicates of 8 male broiler chicks were offered each of the 4 diets in mash form from 1 to 16 days. Another diet (5) contained whole oats and a sixth was a comrrercial c&led starter diet (6). Results in Table 2 show that feed intake was the S~IIE on the oat-based diets but growth rate and E'CR varied. The comrcial diet was &perior (p(O.05) to other diets for the three parar&ers examined. Physical form of the oat-based diets may have limited intake. Table 2. Feed intakes, feed efficiency @CR) and weight gain of broiler chicks on naked oat--based diets (l-4) I whole oat-based diet (5) and a commercial starter diet (6) *Department of-Biochemistry, Microbiology and Wtrition, University of New England, Armidale, 'N.S.W. 2351. 4A