Wheat And Barley For Feeding
Categories:
Diseases of Animals
What is the difference in the feeding value of wheat and barley for hogs
and horses?
There is very little difference in the chemical composition of wheat and
barley. In their physical condition there is much difference, chiefly
because of the adhering chaff of the barley, which makes it more
digestible because it separates the starchy mass and enables the gastric
juice to work upon the particles more readily and quickly. Oats also
have this character. This is very important in the case of horses, which
can quickly be put out of condition by feeding wheat. For hogs and
chickens it makes much less difference, and the absence of the chaff
gives a greater amount of nutritive matter to the ton, so that wheat is
worth more at the same ton price. But look out about giving horses too
much wheat.