Scientific Journal of KubSAU

Sorghum is a source of concentrated, succulent and coarse forage. Its grain is used for making the mixed fodder and as the concentrated forage for swine, cows, sheep, horses and poultry. Sweet sorghum is successfully used for silage and haylage. Green chop of Sudan grass is used as fresh food for domestic animals and it’s used for making hay and silage. The nutritional value of the fodder is the way to meet the animal needs in nutrients, necessary for living. To determine the nutritional value of the fodder, oat fodder units and energy fodder units or exchange energy are used. At present the assessment of nutritional value according to fodder units is being revised, because it doesn’t give the true picture of the value of fodder nutrition and animal needs in nutrients. The general energetic nutritional value of fodder is considered as contents of all organic substances, supplied with fodder or with its energy. The nutritional value of fodder is valued according to the characteristics of its chemical composition, digestion of nutrients and general (energetic) nutritional value. The purpose of the work is to assess the nutritional value of fodder, obtained from the best sorghum varieties, as the food for different kinds of agricultural animals. Sorghum, used as fodder for poultry possesses the largest nutritional value. Among the grain sorghum varieties, the variety ‘Zernogradskoe 88’ has got the biggest value of fodder units. The green chop of Sudan grass and green fodder for silage of sweet sorghum possess the greatest nutritional value for swine. The varieties of Sudan grass ‘Krasava’ and ‘Arkadiya’ and the variety of sweet sorghum ‘Listvenit’ are the best varieties according to the contents of fodder units