Feed value of germinated barley for waterfowl

Whole barley was germinated in a germination machine for 48 hours and teste d in a balanced test with adult gander and Peking drakes. The germination e ffected changes in the composition of crude nutrients of the barley. The mo st important changes were a lower content of starch and higher proportions of crude protein, crude fat and crude fibre. The investigation included est imation of the apparent digestibility of crude protein and organic matter a nd an estimation of the content of apparent nitrogen corrected metabolizabl e energy. The digestibility parameters were better for geese but these smal l differences did not effect the content of metabolizable energy. For geese and ducks, germinated barley has the same feed value. Loss of starch cause d by the germination process effected the lower content of metabolizable en ergy (0.4 MJ/kg) in comparison to the chicken-related values for whole barl ey.