The aims of this Ring‑test were the standarisation of analytical methodology used to obtain the nutritive value of feedstuffs and the estimation of reproducibility and repetibility of these analytical methods.
Samples of six feedstuffs (grass silage, pasture hay, lucerne hay, cereal straw, barley and soya) were sent to seventeen laboratories to determine dry matter, ash, crude protein (A.0.A.C., 1990), neutral detergent fibre (Goering and Van Soest, 1970) and enzymatic digestibility of the organic matter (Riveros y Argamentería, 1987). The coefficients of variation obtained for the dry matter and ash, were acceptable, but the results of crude protein neutral detergent fibre and enzymatic digestibility value of organic matter show a great variability.
When comparing these coefficients of variation with others obtained in previous Ring‑test for the same analytical determinations we have observed a reduction of the variability of the results.