Table 3.

The effects of grain type and dietary inclusions of sodium metabisulphite (SMBS) and protease on parameters of nutrient utilisation within 7 to 28 days post–-hatch.

Treatments			Nutrient utilisation
Grain	SMBS, g/kg	Protease, units/kg	AME, MJ/kg DM	ME:GE ratio	N retention, %	AMEn, MJ/kg DM
Wheat	0	0	12.48	0.750	65.48	11.06
	0	1,000	12.15	0.729	63.32	10.81
	2.75	0	12.04	0.722	62.04	10.71
	2.75	1,000	11.93	0.705	61.47	10.35
Sorghum	0	0	12.28	0.750	62.76	11.10
	0	1,000	12.31	0.754	65.06	11.06
	2.75	0	12.48	0.763	65.95	11.19
	2.75	1,000	12.46	0.760	65.64	11.15
SEM			0.1431	0.0086	1.1036	0.1357
Main effects grain
Wheat			12.09	0.727	63.08	10.73
Sorghum			12.38	0.756	64.85	11.13
SMBS, g/kg
0			12.30	0.746	64.16	11.01
2.75			12.17	0.737	63.77	10.85
Protease, units/kg
0			12.32	0.746	64.06	11.01
1,000			12.16	0.737	63.87	10.84
Significance (P-value)
Grain			0.008	<0.001	0.030	<0.001
SMBS			0.205	0.189	0.630	0.112
Protease			0.130	0.138	0.814	0.083
Grain × SMBS			0.005	0.006	0.006	0.015
Grain × Protease			0.104	0.120	0.141	0.179
SMBS × Protease			0.901	0.856	0.745	0.761
Grain × SMBS × Protease			0.889	0.681	0.188	0.790
Grain × SMBS interactions
Wheat			12.31	0.740	64.40	10.93
Wheat plus 2.75 g/kg SMBS			11.88	0.713	61.75	10.53
Sorghum			12.29	0.752	63.91	11.08
Sorghum plus 2.75 g/kg SMBS			12.47	0.761	65.80	11.17