DIGESTIBILITY BY FARM ANIMALS 



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Comparative Digestibility of Nutrients in Various Foods by 

 Ruminants and Pigs (Kellner). 



Pigs digest practically as much protein in con- 

 centrates as ruminants, although in the bulky foods they 

 compare less favourably. In the case of fat in foods, 

 pigs are a long way behind ruminants, although they 

 appear to digest it fully better than horses ; e.g., with 

 beans the proportions are 30 per cent, as against 13 per 

 cent, with horses; with maize, 74 per cent, against 

 6 1 per cent; and with ground linseed cake, 80 per 

 cent, against 52 per cent. 



In the case of carbohydrates, pigs digest them in 

 concentrated foods almost as well as ruminants, but in 

 bulky foods the latter have the advantage. 



The pig, however, has not much power of digesting 

 fibre either in concentrated or bulky foods. Except 

 with foods very low in fibre, the proportion digested 

 does not reach 25 per cent. Horses, although non- 

 ruminants, possess this power to a greater extent than 

 pigs, on account of their enormously capacious bowels, 

 including the blind gut (caecum), where bulky foods may 



