Cereal Chem 42:523 - 532.  |  VIEW ARTICLE

The Nutritional Value of Wheat Milling By-Products for the Growing Chick. I. Availability of Energy.

N. A. G. Cave, S. J. Slinger, J. D. Summers, and G. C. Ashton. Copyright 1965 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Four experiments were conducted to determine the relative energy value of a series of wheat by-product fractions and of wheat germ meal. When supplemented by only a vitamin-mineral mix, bran samples were unable to support life; the other wheat by-products supported only a poor rate of growth. Growth and feed efficiency of chicks were good when they were fed either wheat shorts or wheat germ meal diluted with 50% of a corn-soybean meal ration. Feed intake and growth appeared to be limited by the gluten content and/or fineness of wheat middlings fed in the form of mash. Growth was restricted by the low nutrient value of bran. The results indicate that because of the difficulty with which certain wheat by-products at high levels are consumed by chicks, the only satisfactory way in which they can be compared is in the form of pelleted or crumbled feed. High-pressure steam pelleting of rations containing 50% of wheat by-products improved growth and feed efficiency markedly. The level of feed intake was increased for all rations and the metabolizable energy values of bran, shorts, and wheat germ meal were increased by 30, 17, and 15%, respectively.