Feed Unit

a unit for measuring and comparing the nutritive value of feeds. The Soviet feed unit was developed in 1922-23 by the Commission of the Veterinary Scientific Council of the People’s Commissariat for Agriculture of the RSFSR under the direction of E. A. Bogdanov. The unit was established as the nutritive value of 1 kg of average quality dry oats. The nutritive value of one feed unit, as determined by fat deposition in cattle, is 150 g of fat or 1, 414 kilocalories (5.95 megajoules). The Soviet feed unit is derived from the starch equivalent (1 feed unit corresponds to 0.6 starch equivalent). The Scandinavian feed unit, equal in nutritive value to 1 kg of average quality dry barley, is used in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland. The therm is a feed unit expressed in the quantity of “pure,” or physiologically useful, energy (United States). One therm is equal to 1 megacalorie. The evaluation of feeds according to their total digestible nutrients has been widely adopted in the United States, the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, and Great Britain. Feeding standards for farm animals are based on feed units.