[Estimation of dietary fiber content of feedstuffs]

In a series of 8 concentrates, 18 roughages and 13 wet feedstuffs the interactions between different dietary fibre fractions were studied. In comparison to other analytical methods the crude fibre method (XF) did not allow a satisfactory estimation of the dietary fibre content (DF) of the experimental feedstuffs. In comparison to the NDF and the dietary fibre content and depending on the feedstuff, XF content was lowered by 2 to 3 times and 2 to 4 times, respectively. There was a surprisingly high correspondence between the contents of NDF and unsoluble dietary fibre for almost all feedstuffs. Highly significant statistical coherences could be observed between the different fibre fractions. It can be expected, that these correlations do not always follow a linear relationship, as could be observed in the regressions equations for NDF to DF and XF to ADF.