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INTRODUCTION 1 INTRODUCTION The need for information concerning the nutritive value of feeds was recognized long ago. The first tables (ca. 1800â 1810) were based on the relative amounts of feed required to maintain and support animal production (Tyler, 1975). Later in the nineteenth century, German and French scientists developed the crude fiber analysis procedure and partitioned feeds into nitrogenous and carbohydrate fractions. The work continued with the early digestion trials and the appearance of tables containing digestibility and proximate analysis (Henneberg and Stohmann, 1860, 1864). Scientists in the United States expanded on the Europeans' work and published feed tables containing nutrient and energy values (Atwater, 1874; Henry, 1898; Armsby, 1903; Henry and Morrison, 1910; and Morrison et al., 1936). The need for a review of feed composition information was recognized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1952. This resulted in a publication on the composition of concentrates (National Academy of Sciences, 1956) and one on the composition of forages and grains (National Academy of Sciences, 1958). A number of comprehensive tables of feed composition, including feeds representing different geographical areas, have been published during the last decade. These include the following: Atlas of Nutritional Data on United States and Canadian Feeds (National Academy of Sciences, 1971); Applied Animal Nutrition (Crampton and Harris, 1969); Latin American Tables of Feed Composition (McDowell et al., 1974); Tropical Feeds (Göhl, 1975); Nutrient Composition of Some Philippine Feedstuffs (Castillo and Gerpacio, 1976), Composition of British Feedstuffs (Agricultural Research Council, 1976), and Middle East Feed Composition Tables (Kearl et al., 1979).