Effect of Physical and Chemical Treatment of Grains on Growth of and Feed Utilization by the Chick

IN A recent study conducted at this station, Adams and Naber (1969) found that water treatment of cereal grains was as effective in improving their nutritive value as acid or enzyme soaking treatments. Since the acid treatment of grains did improve the nutritive value in most cases, it seems that microbial fermentation has little or no influence on the growth response obtained from the water-soaking treatment, and that endogenous enzymes do not aid in the soaking process. Willingham et al. (1960) presented evidence which indicated that the superiority of water-treated barley over enzyme supplements was due to the presence of an effective antibiotic in the treated barley for chick growth. Leong et al. (1960) conducted experiments with wheat milling fractions (flour, bran, germ, shorts, middlings and wheat millfeed). They showed that water treatment improved the utilization of all milling fractions except flour. These same workers (1962) showed that the metabolizable…