Prediction of the Nutritional Value of Hull-Less Barley Grain by Using its Non- Starch Polysaccharides Contents

This experiment was carried out to evaluate the nutritional value of hull-less barley varieties and also, to investigate the relationship between its non-starch polysaccharides and metabolizable energy for poultry. Eight improved varieties of hull-less barley were examined for chemical composition. Metabolizable energy of hull-less barley varieties were determined using cockerels. The differences between metabolizable energy content of barley varieties were analyzed using completely randomized design. There was no significant difference between varieties based on AMEn content. The average metabolizable energy of barley sample was 3.112 (kcal/kg DM) and crude protein, fat, ash, starch, soluble sugar, soluble NSPs and insoluble NSPs were 11.5, 1.03, 2.27, 3.19, 60.91, 5.57, 5.14 and 12.79(%), respectively. There was high negative correlation between non-starch polysaccharides and AMEn (r =0.92, p<0.01) in hull-less barleys. Therefore, the equation for estimating AMEn by soluble NSPs was AMEn= 3.324-0.061 S-NSP, R2 = 0.9. The correlation between crude fiber and NSPs was significant (r = 0.87, p<0.01) and their regression equation was: S-NSP = 2.253 + 0.91CF, R2 = 0.77. The results of this experiment suggested that the metabolizable energy of the hull-less barley grain is highly affected by its soluble non starch polysaccharides content. Thus, soluble non-starch polysaccharides content of hull-less barley could be use for predicting of its metabolizable energy.