230 BETTER DAIRY FARMING 



418. Buckwheat feed. — It has been stated that hulls are a. 

 by-product of flour milling. They contain 45 per cent of fiber and 

 little protein or fat and thus have practically no feeding value. 

 They should be thrown away. Many millers are unwilling to do 

 this, but instead mix hulls with middlings and setl the product as 

 buckwheat feed. Such a feed may be fairly good or practically 

 worthless depending on the amount of hulls added. Of course, the 

 more hulls, the less protein and the more fiber and thus the guar- 

 antee will give an indication of the value of the feed. However, 

 many small millers sell buckwheat feed locally without any 

 guarantee and cause the dairyman to buy a lot of hulls under the 

 impression that a feed nearly as good as buckwheat middlings 

 is being bought at a bargain. Mixing a worthless material such as 

 buckwheat hulls with a high-grade feed like the middlings is wrong 

 in principle even if a fairly good feed results. The high-grade feed 

 should be sold for what it is worth and the useless stuff thrown 

 away. Certainly buckwheat feed should not be bought except 

 under a definite guarantee as to analysis. 



419. Ground rye. — The rye kernel is very similar to wheat in 

 analysis. The ground grain may be used in the dairy ration in 

 place of such feeds as oats, barley or corn. It ranks somewhat 

 higher in total digestible nutrients than barley, but lower than 

 corn. It may be doubted whether ground rye is as valuable as 

 either ground barley or corn meal for milk production but it is a 

 useful feed where the farmer can grow it to advantage over the 

 other grains or finds it especially suited in his rotation of crops. 



420. Rye middlings or rye feed. — Formerly in the milling 

 of rye for flour, bran and middlings were separated as by-products 

 and sold separately. Now they are usually combined and sold 

 under the names rye feed or rye middlings. The rye by-products 

 are similar in analysis and feeding value to the wheat by-products, 

 but so little of them are produced that they are of small importance 

 as feeds. 



421. Rice bran. — This is a highly nutritious feed containing 

 around 12 per cent each of protein, fat and fiber. The fat content is 

 rather variable and frequently runs considerably higher than the 



