182 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



FEEDING WHOLE GRAIN. 



BY R. S. SOAW AND H. W. NORTON^ JR. 



Bulletin No. 242. 



The plans of this experiment were executed and the material prepared 

 for publication by Mr. Norton. 



For some time past the system of feeding whole grain has had many 

 advocates. Some speakers and writers on agricultural and live stock 

 subjects have advised the use of whole corn, either alone, or in conjunc- 

 tion with other grains for steer feeding, and many farmers are feeding 

 whole oats to cows, young stock, and calves. 



The presence of large quantities of oats in the droppings from cows 

 fed a grain mixture containing whole oats, and the fact that a field 

 manured with these droppings produced a fairly good stand of oats, 

 suggested this experiment to determine the percentage of whole grain 

 passing through the digestive tract. The investigation later on in this 

 experiment shows that only a small percentage of the grain which 

 passed through the system unmasticated would germinate, but when a 

 field was heavily manured with the droppings, even the small per cent 

 which would germinate would produce quite a stand of the grain. 



No attempt was made to compare the feeding value of whole grain 

 with ground grain, nor was any attempt made to ascertain the gains 

 or losses in weight made by the animals while on the whole grain feed. 



Claims are also made by advocates of this method of feeding that 

 even though a large amount does pass through without apparent change, 

 still the animal "gets a lot of good out of it." To clear up this last 

 question, chemical analyses were made to find the exact composition of 

 the grain, both before and after feeding, in order to detect any changes 

 taking place. 



PLAN OP EXPERIMENTS. 



The plan of the experiment was to feed mature cows, yearling heifers 

 and calves, six animals of each class. Three different rations were used, 

 one of whole corn, one of whole oats, and one whole oats 4 parts, whole 

 corn 4 parts, and bran 2 parts, the supplementary feed being, in all 

 cases, clover hay, which they received as needed. Every animal of the 

 eighteen under experiment received each of the grain rations during the 

 test. 



All the animals were kept in the stable continuously and watered 

 twice daily. Each feeding period lasted seven days of 24 hours each, 

 during which time all grain fed was weighed, and all droppings collected 

 and washed through screens to separate the grain. The screens 

 were as fine meshed as could be used, and still allow the escape of 

 everything but the grain, in fact some of the oats were washed through- 

 and lost. Ordinary window screen was tried first, but was too fine, and 



