The Effect of Texture on the Nutritive Value 

 of Concentrates for Dairy Cattle 



N. F. Colovos, H. A. Keener. H. A. Davis. 

 K. S. Morrow and K. S. Gibson :: 



Introduction 



THE TREND in dairy cattle feeding during the past several years has been 

 toward the use of coarse textured concentrate feeds and away from the 

 conventional "fine" type mixtures. There has been considerable discussion 

 among both dairymen and feedmen about the advantages of the coarse 

 textured concentrate feeds. Many of these people have claimed that the 

 coarse feeds are more palatable, can be consumed in greater quantities, and 

 consequently result in greater milk production than comparable ground feeds. 

 As a result of these claims many dairy farmers were convinced that they 

 could afford to pay at least $2.00 per ton extra for such feeds. Economy- 

 minded dairymen, feedmen, and research workers, however, questioned this 

 practice. They contended that two of the most important considerations de- 

 termining the nutritive value of a feed — digestibility and utilization of its 

 ingredients — had been ignored almost completely. Because the cost of con- 

 centrates is one of the largest single expense items to a dairy farmer (approx- 

 imately 22 per cent of value of milk sold in New Hampshire) and because 

 practically no experimental evidence could be found in the literature to 

 support the sales promotion claims, it was deemed desirable to obtain defi- 

 nite information on the relative nutritive value of coarse and fine textured 

 concentrate feeds. Later, when it was found that the popular coarse feeds 

 were less digestible than fine ones, it also was decided to find out if there 

 were any ingredients that could be used in concentrate mixtures in the coarse 

 form without decreasing their nutritive value. 



Review of Literature 



Literature dealing with the relative nutritive value of coarse and fine 

 textured concentrate feeds for dairy cattle is very scarce. Most of the studies 

 reported in the literature dealt with the effect of fineness of grinding on milk 

 production. Bohstedt and co-workers (2) conducted feeding trials to determine 

 the feeding values of corn and barley for pigs and of barley for dairy cattle 

 when these grains were ground to varying degrees of fineness. They con- 

 cluded that barley fed to dairy cows needed to be ground to a granular con- 

 dition rather than to a fine meal. 



* Mr. Colovos is Research Associate Professor of Dairy Husbandry, Dr. Keener 

 is Professor of Dairy Husbandry, Mr. Davis is Research Associate Professor of Agri- 

 cultural and Biological Chemistry, Mr. Morrow is Professor of Dairy Husbandry, and 

 Mr. Gibson was formerly a graduate research assistant. 



