Processing cereal grains for animal feeding

This review concentrates on factors influencing the nutritive value of cere al grains for animals and strategies, in particular processing and storage, which may be used to optimise fermentation and digestion. The main focus i s on the utilisation of starch in cereal grains by ruminants. Extensive com parisons have been made between grains and between animals to understand th e reasons for differences in pattern of fermentation and/or intestinal dige stion in response to a range of processing techniques. In addition, differe nces between the animal species have been reviewed to understand further th e factors critical for maximising post-ruminal starch digestion.