An experiment was conducted in which hybrid sorghum grains were fed to chicks to study the effect of tannin content and dry matter digestion on the energy utilization and biological availability of amino acids. The sorghum grains were each fed to five mixed sex four-week-old chicks as the only feed for 4 hours and total fecal excretion was collected for each chick. The amino acid content and gross energy (G.E.) of the sorghum grains and feces were determined. Correlation coefficients for dry matter digestion to amino acid availability (0.94), kcal. metabolizable energy (M.E.)/g. (0.98) and percentage of G.E. utilized (0.99) were highly significant (P < 0.01). The correlation coefficient for tannin content to amino acid availability, (-0.82) was also highly significant (P < 0.01). The correlation coefficients for tannin content to kcal. M.E./g. (-0.62) and percentage of G.E. utilized (-0.62) were significant (P < 0.05). The amount of dry matter digested influenced amino acid availability and energy utilization more than did tannin content. Tannin content had a greater effect on amino acid availability than it did on percentage of G.E. utilized. Amino acid availability and energy utilization were more variable in grains having brown seed coats than grains with non-brown seed coats. Neither endosperm color nor starch texture appeared to influence amino acid availability or energy utilization.

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