We believe it is always best to be transparent and clear. We try not to use overly technical jargon and we like to make it easy to see how our stock feeds will suit your animals. So, we wanted to explain in plain talk what ME, CP, NDF mean in stock feeds.

Metabolisable Energy (ME) in Stock Feed

Metabolisable energy is a measure of how much energy can be produced from the stock feed being digested and is available for the animal to use for production - that means after their basic maintenance needs are met and after some is lost through waste processes.  Normally testing laboratories calculate ME is from digestibility, so it is often the estimated amount that is reported.

Crude protein (CP) in Stock Foods

The nitrogen content (amino acids, or 'true protein' and non-protein nitrogen such as urea) indicates the Crude Protein levels, which in turn powers your stock's performance. Production in your animals is driven by protein, both through direct amino acid activity and as an essential nutrient for the bacteria in an animal's rumen, which support digestion and nutrient absorption processes to help supply energy - and which also fuel the immune system. Together these aspects drive the growth rate, milk production, wool production and overall health of your stock.

Crude protein is expressed as a percentage of dry matter (DM), so the 18% Crude Protein in GrainHub Calf means that for every kilo of dry matter, there are 180grams of crude protein available to the animal.

Neutral Detergent Fibre (NDF)

Neutral Detergent Fibre expresses how much of a feed is composed of cell wall or fibrous fraction, made up of celluloses and lignin. The higher the NDF, the less feed an animal can eat, the lower the NDF, the more an animal may be able to eat each day.

“Digestibility” correlates with NDF (-0.81) which in essence means that lower NDF is more digestible and higher NDF means the feed is less digestible.

• Rank and dry pasture may have an NDF of 68%
• Good quality pasture or silage may have NDF of 48%
• High quality brassica may have an NDF of 28%
• GrainHub Calf has an NDF of 24%

This means that an animal can potentially eat a lot of GrainHub Calf feed - or that it is 'highly digestible'.

NDF is also expressed as a percentage of dry matter, so it's best to work out the grams in each kilo of dry matter to check you are meeting your stock's calculate daily requirement.