Which of the following is a direct outcome of poor nutrient digestibility?

In animal nutrition, poor nutrient digestibility means that animals are unable to effectively break down and absorb essential nutrients from their feed. This inefficiency can lead to increased feed costs because animals need to consume more feed to meet their nutritional requirements, resulting in a higher total expenditure for the same amount of nutrients. If the feed is more digested, it provides more nutrients without the need for larger quantities, but with poor digestibility, animals consume a greater volume of feed but do not benefit proportionally in terms of nutrient availability. This ultimately results in increased costs for feed purchases and also affects overall farm profitability, as feeding high volumes of low-quality feed is not economically sustainable.

In contrast, the other options do not align with the outcomes of poor nutrient digestibility. For instance, enhanced growth rates and improved reproductive performance typically require high-quality, digestible nutrients; thus, these cannot result from poor digestibility. Similarly, reduced forage quality relates to the type of feed rather than the digestibility of what is fed, making it an indirect factor rather than a direct outcome.