Improvement of the Nutritive Value of High Tannin Sorghums for Broiler Chickens by High Moisture Storage (Reconstitution)

Grains from three high and one low tannin sorghum cultivars were treated as follows: 1) untreated, no water was added, the dry grain had an average moisture content of 8% and 2) the moisture content of the grain was raised by adding 25% (w/w) distilled water to the grain. The treated grain was then stored for 10 or 20 days with a 2% level of acetic-propionic acid mixture (60/40, v/v) added to deter fungal growth. This treated grain was used in diets during a 3-week feeding trial with broiler chickens. High moisture storage (reconstitution) of high tannin sorghums decreased their extractable tannin content. Chickens fed diets containing these treated sorghums had improved weight grains (23 to 83 g) and feed efficiencies compared to birds fed diets containing the untreated grain. Treatment of low tannin sorghum did not improve weight gains. Reconstitution of high but not low tannin sorghums improved protein digestibility (6 to 16%) and dietary metabolizable energy (.1 to .3 kcal/g) for broiler chickens. There was a highly significant cultivar effect on leg scores, but the correlation between dietary tannin content and leg scores was low (r = .10), suggesting that tannin content was not a major factor in leg abnormality incidences shown. The improvement in weight grains, feed efficiencies, and protein digestibilities at 10 and 20 days storage periods was not different (P greater than .05), indicating that the benefits of high moisture storage were already obtained by 10 days