Factors affecting the nutritive value of fodder/ forages

1. Palatability: Newly introduced fodder at the beginning may be less palatable to the animal and vice-versa, thus would be with low nutritive value.
2. Consumption: Influence efficiency with which ingested nutrients are used.
3. Digestibility: The capacity of the animal to digest any fodder also affects the nutritive value.
4. Species of animals: Ruminants have more digestibility than non-ruminants.
5. Level of feeding: Too little or too much than the required amount at a time, or even the required amount in a short time will result in less nutritive value.
6. Processing: Finely grinding hurts ruminants.
7. Feed composition: oxalate reduces the digestibility of minerals.
8. Associate effect: Cellulose digestibility is reduced when molasses is added, while straw digestibility is increased when it is added to oil-cakes.