The Florida agriculturist., 1906-03-07
Composition and Use of Prepared
Animal Foods for Poultry.

associate editors:
As L explained in the December
number of Poultry Success, animal
food is necessary for the best results
in egg production. and for the growth
and development of chicks, because
animal protein is in many essentials
different from vegetable protein, and
produces quicker and more marked re-
Suits We have several commercial
products prepared especially for poul-
try that are designed to furnish animal
protein and other elements required
by the laying hen and growing chick.
These feeds are variously branded by
the manufacturers, but can be divided
into five general classes scrap,
meat and bone meal, blood meal, fish
meal and bone.
Meat scraps are composed chiefly
of flesh, with varying amounts of fat
and bone, and vary widely in feeding
value, some having nearly twice the
value of others. Twenty-one samples
were analyzed by the Hatch Expert
ment Station of Massachusetts,, the
highest showing 65.46 per cent. protein
and 3O.4S per cent. fat; the lowest
1859 per cent. protein and 9.72 per
cent. fat, the average being 45.9 per
cent. protein and 1888 per cent fat
Nearly all meat scraps are branded
"beef,'' irrespective of the source.
Scraps are valuable for hopper feeding
of laying hens. supply being kept
constantly before them. For little
chicks it has no equal, as it is not so
apt to cause bowel trouble as fresh
cut bone. When growing chicks we
keep supply before them from the
time they are four days old until the
pullets are placed in winter quarters.
1t is the dependence of the New Eng
land growers of roasting chickens as
source of animal food. Many raise
their chicks on an almost exclusive
diet of beef scraps and cracked corn.
In purchasing beef scraps preference
should be given to that containing a
high percentage of protein, medium
amounts of bone and less than 20 per
cent. fat. They should always be fresh
and sweet In warm weather beef
scraps are apt to spoil or become
wOrmy, if kept under unfavOrable con-
ditiOns. Beef scraps are best fed
from hOppers or trOughs, although they
may be mixed in a mash.
Meat and bone meals are finely
ground animal products, variously
branded, and sold under the names of
Beef Meal" Beef and Bone Meal"
''Meat Meal'' ''AnimaI Meal,'' etc. In
these, too, there is wide difference
in their feeding values. As a general
thing they are lower in both protein
and fat than beef scraps, and decided
ly higher in ash (bOne). The best
grades contain from 35 to 40 per cent
protein, while occasionally some go as
high as so per cent. These products
are usually sold at a little lower price
than beef scraps, and are better suited
to mixing in mash meal for wet or
dry feeding. A number of years ago the
Hatch Experiment Station tried some
experiments to determine the relative
value of wheat and corn as egg pro-
ducing foods. The animal protein in
the ration was meat meal, which is
relatively low in fat, and to the sur
prise of the professors the corn fed
hens came out ahead. Had the animal
food been beef scraps the conductors
think the result would have been in
favor of the wheat. The corn contain
ed all the fat required, and the meat
meal the protein and shell producing
elements. AS wheat is deficient in fat
and richer in protein than corn, it was
believed TO he more nearly what the