Evaluation of seed hardness and malting characteristics of barley grain for use in ruminant diets

• Author / Creator

  Ding, Shuai

• In Western Canada, over 70% of the barley grain grown for malt is sold as livestock feed. The main objective of this thesis was to investigate the relationship between ruminal dry matter digestibility (DMD) and seed hardness (SH) and malting characteristics (MC) of barley grain by measuring in situ DMD, and changes in the nutrient composition as predicted by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy with Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR-FTIR) before and after in situ rumen incubation. Results demonstrated that diastatic power and SH were associated with an improved in situ rumen digestion at early incubation time, but level of SH and MC had no impact on rumen digestion in relation to nutrient molecular structures using ATR-FTIR spectra. However, ATR-FTIR identified the differences of molecular structures in barley grain as affected by rumen digestion, indicating a potential of ATR-FTIR for use to predict nutrient digestion of barley grain in the rumen.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Seed hardness
  • Principle component analysis
  • Barley grain
  • Malting characteristic
  • Rumen digestion
  • In situ
  • Friability
  • Wort beta-glucan
  • DMD
  • FTIR
  • Diastatic power

• Graduation date

  Spring 2015

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R37W68

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.