ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of warm and cold physical as well as chemical processing methods on the nutritive value of barley grains by gas production technique. The processing methods included milling, steam flaking, extruding and soaking up the grain in water containing 1.00% citric acid, 1.00% propionic acid and 0.01 M sulfuric acid. Two-hundred mg of milling samples were incubated in special 100 mL glasses and the amount of gas produced at different hr was measured. The data were analyzed in a completely randomized design. The results showed that different treatments did not have a significant effect on chemical composition of barley seeds. Other methods of processing compared to the grinding method, significantly reduced the total amount of produced gas. In the 72 hr incubation period, the lowest amount of gas production was in the extruded (245.6 mL per g dry matter) treatment. However, there was no significant difference between the two methods of extruding and flaking. The highest percentage of digestible organic matter was associated with propionic acid (64.90%), while the steam cracking method (58.74%) was the least. Among the processing methods, the highest amounts of methane production, total protozoa population and volatile fatty acid concentration were related to the grinding method and the least amount of extrusion treatment was observed during 24 hr of incubation. Different experimental treatments had a significant effect on ammonia nitrogen condensation and the highest level was observed in milling. According to our results, processing methods such as extrusion and flaking may improve the grain nutritive value.
