POULTRY FEEDS AND FEEDING 



consist of oats and its by-products ground up, and should 

 always be bought on the basis of their guaranteed com- 

 position. It is very easy to include a large proportion of 

 oats hulls or other feeds of very low value which are 

 difficult to detect in a superficial mechanical examination 

 of oats feeds. The fiber content will show approximately 

 the relative amount of oats hulls in the feed. 



Various by-products of oats are made but they are not 

 much used in feeding poultry except as they are included 

 in the commercial mixed feeds. Oat dust consists of the 

 small hairs which adhere to the outer end of the kernel 

 and contain considerable protein and fat and about 18 

 per cent fiber. Its feeding value lies between that of oats 

 hulls and oats middlings. Oats middlings and oats shorts 

 are made of the outside skins of this grain, occupying 

 a position in the oats seed similar to the bran of wheat. 

 Oats middlings contain more fat than wheat bran. Pin- 

 head oatmeal or hulled oats are used extensively in feed- 

 ing small chickens. 



The berry of the oats with the hulls removed is called 

 "oats groats" and is used extensively in a finely ground 

 form in the commercial fattening of poultry in which a 

 very finely ground product is desired with only a small 

 amount of fiber. Ground oats, which have been reground, 

 are also sometimes used, especially in fattening hens, but 

 do not give as good results as do ground oats groats. 

 Clipped oats by-products are made of clippings from the 

 ends of oats and consists largely of fiber. This product is 

 used mostly in preparing proprietary feeds. The feed 



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