Cereal Chem 43:447 - 455.  |  VIEW ARTICLE

A Comparison of the Nutritive Value of Three Sorghum Grains with That of Wheat.

M. W. Lamb, J. M. Michie, and J. M. Rivers. Copyright 1966 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Diets containing equal amounts of Shallu, Waxy Kafir, Martin Maize, and wheat were fed to rats for three generations. The nutritive value of the grains was evaluated by comparing rat weights, food consumption, and reproductive capacities. The sorghum grains were nutritionally inferior to wheat. Impairment in growth of rats on the Shallu, Kafir, and Martin diets became evident in the third, second, and first generations, respectively. The sorghum grains were not as efficient as wheat in producing weight gains. This was evident for Shallu and Kafir in the second generation and for Martin in the first generation. All of the sorghum grains were inferior to wheat in producing litters in the second generation and in rearing young to weanling age in the first generation. The sorghum grain diets did not promote growth and reproduction in the second generation comparable to that produced in the first generation. Decreased efficiency in producing weight gains was noted for all the sorghum grain diets in the second generation. The results indicate that supplementation of the sorghum grains is necessary before they can be substituted for wheat in nutrition and illustrate the dangers of drawing conclusions from short-term feeding experiments on weanling rats from standard breeding stock.