FOOD AND DIGESTION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 424, 15 November 1930, Page 22 (Supplement)

FOOD AND DIGESTION

DIFFERENCE IN STOCK. The difference between the digestive tracts of the various farm animals give them different powers of utilising foodstuffs Cattle and sheep (particularly the former) are especially valuable as users of coarse fodder, while horses are not so efficient—with straw horses only digest about one-half as much as the ruminants, but with the better types of hay they are little more than 10 per cent, less efficient. The pig is a very economical converter of energy as Jong as it is fed on correct lines, but if the ration contains any considerable amount of fibre the “digestibility coefficient” sinks markedly. Different breeds of the same species have not been found to show any differences in their digestive powers, nor could American workers find any difference between purebred animals and scrubs in the percentage of nutrients digested, though it is to be supposed that improved animals would have greater capacity. Within the breeds, a certain amount of variation from animal to animal exists, but this is largely caused by factors more or less pathological in nature, such as bad teeth, worms and so forth.