Knowledge on feedstuff composition plays a pivotal role in investigations regarding the nutrient supply of livestock according to their requirements. Further issues relating thereto are the evaluation of feedstuffs and feed additives, as well as questions concerning animal health and ecological aspects of nutrient excretions. The working group Basic Analytics is an important platform of the Institute of Animal Nutrition with its main task of analysing samples generated from feeding trials with different animal species (feedstuffs, physiological samples such as faeces, urine, contents of rumen and intestine and foods of animal origin). Applied methods comprise raw nutrient analyses (dry matter, crude ash, crude fat, crude protein, crude fiber) and investigations on further ingredients such as starch, carbohydrates and certain fiber fractions (acid and neutral detergent fiber, lignin, tannin), minerals, trace elements and some physiological parameters. At the Institute, laboratories and equipment for wet chemical methods and also modern analytical instruments are available for these analytical purposes, such as:
- High performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC- DAD/FLD)
- Gas chromatograph (GC-FID)
- Optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) with microwave disintegration
- Nitrogen/protein analyser according to DUMAS
- Flow injection analyser
- Polarimeter
The analytical methods used by the working group are based on both nationally and internationally approved and also inhouse methods, which are continuously enhanced and extended.