Forages for Cattle: New Methods of Determining Energy Content and Evaluating Heat Damage

Abstract

The crude fiber method of feed analysis has been used for more than 100 years. Although this method was an important first attempt at determining the energy content of feeds, it has a number of shortcomings. A new analytical approach for estimating energy content of forages was developed by Van Soest in the 1960s at the USDA Beltsville Nutritional Research Facility. These detergent fiber analyses give more accurate estimates of forage energy values and now are used for forage analysis.