FEEDS FOR THE DAIRY COW 373 



602. Cocoanut meal. Since the World War, considerable amounts of 

 cocoanut meal (also called copra meal) have come upon American mar- 

 kets, both old-process meal, from which the oil has been expressed, and 

 new-process meal, from which the oil has been extracted by naphtha. 

 (260) As the new-process meal is much lower in fat, it is not apt to 

 turn rancid in warm weather, which not infrequently occurs with the 

 old-process meal unless it is thoroly dry. Cocoanut meal is somewhat 

 laxative in its action, like wheat bran and linseed meal, but is not as 

 palatable as these feeds. It supplies less than two-thirds as much digesti- 

 ble crude protein as linseed or cottonseed meal but is fully as high in 

 total digestible nutrients. In chemical composition it resembles gluten 

 feed, and it proved slightly superior to gluten feed in a trial by Lindsey 

 at the Massachusetts Station. 50 In this trial the yield of milk was about 

 the same on old-process cocoanut meal as on gluten feed, but the yield of 

 fat was 6 per ct. higher, possibly due to the oil in the meal causing a 

 more or less temporary increase in the fat content of the milk, a finding 

 reported in other investigations. (560) 



In a trial by McCandlish at the Iowa Station, 51 when 2.5 Ibs. of either 

 old-process cocoanut meal or linseed meal was added to a ration of corn 

 silage, alfalfa hay, and a concentrate mixture of cracked corn, ground 

 oats, and wheat bran, the yield of milk was 2 per ct. less on cocoanut 

 meal, but the yield of fat 4 per ct. higher. If fed in a ration otherwise 

 low in protein, linseed meal would in all probability have proved decided- 

 ly superior, as it is much richer in protein. A limited amount of cocoa- 

 nut meal produces a firm butter of excellent quality, but when fed in 

 excess of 3 to 4 Ibs. per head daily it may make too hard a butter. 



Woll 51a reports good results in California trials where 2 to 4 Ibs. of 

 cocoanut meal was fed per head daily. The percentage of fat in the 

 milk was increased very slightly on the cocoanut-meal rations and the 

 milk flow was maintained well. 



603. Palm-kernel meal and miscellaneous oil cakes. European dairy- 

 men make wide use of various oil cakes, employing not only cottonseed, 

 linseed, soybean, and cocoanut cake, but also such by-products as palm- 

 nut, sunflower-seed, hemp-seed, and rape-seed cakes, which are practi- 

 cally unknown to American feeders. (259) Before the World War the 

 palm kernels were largely shipped from Africa to Germany. During 

 one period of the war considerable quantities were sent to America, 

 but later the raw material was sent chiefly to England. In trials at 

 the Kentucky Station 52 by Hooper and Nutter it was necessary to mix 

 palm-kernel meal with other feed to teach cows to eat it. They con- 

 clude that it has about the same feeding value as wheat bran, when used 

 as a partial substitute for this feed. 



604. Velvet beans. Velvet beans are fast becoming an important 

 dairy leed in the South. (264, 361) The beans and pods should either 



"Mass. Bui. 155. M Cal. Bui. 335. 



51 Jour. Dairy Science, 5, 1922, pp. 27-38. M Ky. Cir. 23. 



