Did you know that cows and pigs have different ways of digesting the food that they eat? Cows and sheep are known as ruminants which means that they have four components (rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum) in their digestive tract. Whereas, pigs and chickens have a simple stomach and are known as monogastrics which means that they only have one conpatment (stomach) in their digestive tract as can be seen in Figure 1.
Due to these different Feed Tests you also need to calculate the potential digestibility of their feed differently as this will ensure that you are getting the best productivity out of your animals.
For $75 including GST, Feed Central offers 24 hr NIR Ausscan testing to determine the digestibilities for chickens and pigs. We are able to test wheat, barley, triticale, sorghum, soya beans and canola meals.
Figure 1. The structural difference between a ruminant (cow) digestive tract and a monogastric (pig) digestive tract.
