Dairyland Laboratories Inc. is excited to announce our new collaboration with Northwest Labs, LLC, to provide feed and forage testing services from Northwest Lab’s Jerome, Idaho location. Northwest La...
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The amount of starch in a fecal sample is highly related to the total tract starch digestibility. Several published studies have found a correlation between fecal starch and starch digestibility of .73 to 94, depending on the internal marker used in the study. One study, at the University of Pennsylvania, found that each 1% unit increase in fecal starch was equivalent to 0.72 lbs of lost milk production.
Fecal starch analysis takes approximately 3 days in the lab and costs the same as most NIR packages. This makes fecal starch analysis a useful tool for routine monitoring starch digestibiliy in dairy and beef feeding operations.
Fecal Starch % | Interpretation |
< 3% | Optimum Digestibility |
3-5% | |
>5% | Evaluate individual feeds |
Request a fecal starch kit which contains the supplies required for proper sampling and shipping of fecal starch samples.