Nutritional value of waxy barleys for broiler chickens

Barley, an Undervalued Cereal for Poultry Diets: Limitations and Opportunities

“…Weight gain and F/G of 14-d old broilers fed the hull-less barley at 350 g/kg was similar to those fed the control wheat diet, wherein barley inclusion at 700 g/kg resulted in the lowest WG and highest F/G. The deterioration of growth performance associated with barley inclusion reported in previous studies may partly be explained by weight-to-weight substitution of barley for the major cereal in the diets [ 118 , 128 ], resulting in lower metabolisable energy and digestible AA content than the corresponding cereal-based diets.…”

“…Yu et al [ 113 ] evaluated the inclusion of de-hulled barley at inclusion levels of 0, 400 and 800 g/kg, and supplementation of β-glucanase in iso-nitrogenous and iso-caloric maize-based diets and reported increased FI and WG with no effect on feed efficiency in response to the increasing inclusion of barley. The effect of barley inclusion in poultry diets on feed efficiency has been inconsistent, as both improvements [ 118 ] and depressions [ 128 ] have been reported. Moss et al [ 128 ], replaced wheat (w/w basis) with 0, 272, 408 and 544 g/kg of waxy starch hulled barley in broiler diets with no enzyme addition and reported that increasing levels of barley consistently decreased the WG, but had no effect on F/G.…”

“…The effect of barley inclusion in poultry diets on feed efficiency has been inconsistent, as both improvements [ 118 ] and depressions [ 128 ] have been reported. Moss et al [ 128 ], replaced wheat (w/w basis) with 0, 272, 408 and 544 g/kg of waxy starch hulled barley in broiler diets with no enzyme addition and reported that increasing levels of barley consistently decreased the WG, but had no effect on F/G. Classen et al [ 129 ] substituted hull-less barley (starch type not identified) on weight basis (0, 200, 400 and 600 g/kg) for wheat in a broiler starter diet and reported a linear decrease in BW with increasing levels of barley, while no changes were reported for F/G.…”

“…However, recommendations on the optimum inclusion of barley have been contradictory due to confounding factors such as starch type, presence of hull and cultivar differences, which have been overlooked in most previous studies. As shown in Table 9 , most studies have replaced other cereals with barley either on a weight-to-weight basis [ 105 , 128 , 173 , 174 ] or by using nutrient composition data for barley and the substituted grain from established data sources such as NRC [ 116 ] and tables published by Spanish Foundation for the Development of Animal Nutrition (FEDNA) [ 175 , 176 ], or chemical analysis [ 177 ]. Studies where barley-based diets were formulated using accurate nutrient profiles specific to the barley cultivar based on determined AME and digestible AA contents are scanty.…”