DIGESTIBILITY OF FEEDING STUFFS 67 



Grinding, Cutting, or Rolling of Feeds. — The digestibility of 

 feeding stuffs is not, as a general rule, materially altered by special 

 methods of preparation, like cutting, grinding, cracking, or rolling. 

 An exception to this rule is found in the case of old or very young 

 animals that cannot chew their feed 'well, and with small, hard seeds 

 that would largely pass through the digestive tract unbroken and 

 would not be acted upon by the digestive fluids of the body. When 

 used for feeding farm animals, grains like wheat, barley, rye, kafir 

 corn, etc., are therefore usually ground or soaked, and other cereals 

 (corn, oats) are ground only when fed to young animals or to very 

 old animals, so as to insure a maximum digestibility. If whole or 

 broken grain reappears in the dung of the animals, it is evident that 

 the feed had better be ground, or, if already ground, that too much is 

 fed, and the allowance should in that case be reduced. 



Hay and other roughage is sometimes run through a cutter 

 before being fed out when of poor quality, or for mixing with other 

 feeds, so that the animals may eat as much as possible thereof. In 

 the western States alfalfa hay is frequently cut for steers and dairy 

 cows. This is considered as economical practice, both because it 

 insures the hay being eaten without waste and because it means a 

 considerable saving of storage room. It is a common practice in 

 European countries to feed cut straw mixed with grain to horses and 

 occasionally to other farm animals, so as to induce them to consume 

 a considerable amount of cheap- roughage. 



Soaking, Cooking, or Steaming Feed. — The digestibility of 

 feeding stuffs is not influenced by soaking or wetting these prior to 

 feeding time, but a depression of the digestion coefficients for protein 

 will occur when the feeds are subjected to high temperatures, 

 boiled, steamed, etc. The method of cooking feed was at one time 

 much practised, especially among European farmers, but it has now 

 been generally abandoned, except in the case of feeding swine. 

 Numerous trials conducted at experiment stations have shown that 

 it does not, in general, pay to cook feed for farm stock. There is 

 a certain advantage in cooking potatoes and in steaming cut straw 

 or hay of poor quality when intended for feeding swine, from the 

 fact that the cell tissues are softened by the process, and the non- 

 nitrogenous components are thus acted upon more thoroughly by the 

 digestive fluids. 



This does not refer to the protein substances, however, as these 

 are rendered less digestible through the action of heat. The per- 

 centage of digestible protein in fresh, wet beet pulp was thus found 

 by artificial digestion to be 60.1 per* cent; after being dried at 



