DIGESTION OF STARCH BY THE YOUNG CALF 



By R. H. Shaw, T. E. Woodward, and R. P. Norton, of the Dairy Division, Bureau 

 of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture 



PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS 



There is considerable evidence that young animals thrive on a ration 

 containing starch, but a rather extensive search in the literature failed 

 to discover any data concerning the question as to how scon after birth 

 the calf can begin to digest starch. The investigation here described was 

 undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining how early in its life the calf 

 can utilize starch or starch -containing feeds. The practical application, 

 of course, is in supplementing or supplanting the milk ration of the 

 young calf with other feed. 



The literature contains many accounts of feeding experiments with 

 young animals where starch alone or as the principal component of 

 some feed has been used. The purposes of these experiments, however, 

 have been largely to determine the effect of starch upon the health, the 

 rate of gain in weight, the cost of raising, or the digestibility of some 

 other component of the ration rather than the actual digestibility of 

 the starch itself. The record of but one experiment was found in which 

 the feces of young starch-fed calves were tested for the presence of 

 starch. 



Ewing and Wells ^ report the use of starch in combination with corn 

 silage and cottonseed meal in the ration of 12 -month-old steers on di- 

 gestion trial. In their summary they state that when as much as 

 47.3 per cent of the net energy of the ration was supplied in the form 

 of starch the iodin test did not indicate the presence of starch in the 

 feces. 



There are recorded in the medical literature on the diet and hygiene 

 of children several investigations in which the actual digestibility of 

 starch by children was studied. Kerley, Campbell, and Mason ^ report 

 the examination for starch of 324 stools, collected under controlled con- 

 ditions at the New York Infant Asylum from 60 children, all under i 

 year of age, who had been fed either wholly or in part on barley water. 

 The barley water was prepared by boiling raw barley flour for 1^4 hours. 

 The stools were examined for starch by the Von Jaksch iodin test, with 



1 Ewing, Perry van, and Wells, C. A. the associative digestibility of corn silage, cotton- 

 seed meal, and STARCH IN steer RATIONS. Ga. Agt. Exp. Sta. Bui. 115, p. 269-296, 7diagr., 1915. 



2 Kerley, C. G., Campbell, W^ C, and Mason, H. N. a further contribution to the study of 

 STOOLS of starch-fed INFANTS. In Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, v. 47, no. 10, p. 763-765- 1906. 



Journal of Agricultural Research. Vol. XII. No. 9 



Washington. D. C. Mar. 4, 1918 



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(575) 



Key No. A — 35 



