Grain Feed

Grain Feed 

the kernel of cereal and leguminous crops, used for fodder for agricultural animals. Grain feed belongs to the group of concentrated feeds: compared with other feeds, a unit volume of grain feed contains the greatest quantity of easily digested nutritive substances. Cereal grains contain up to 75 percent carbohydrates, 10–12 percent protein, 2–5 percent fat, 1–4 percent minerals (basically the salts of phosphoric acid and potassium), and vitamins of the B and E groups. The kernels of legumes contain 20–25 percent protein (up to 35 percent in soybeans) and 1-–2 percent fat (about 15 percent in soybeans).

The basic grain feeds include cereals such as maize, oats, barley, rye, millet, Turkestan millet, and sorgo, and such legumes as vetch, lentils, soybeans, kidney beans, fodder beans, and gram. Grain feed is given to all types of animals in a crushed, flattened, or ground form. Because of the presence of astringents, large doses of legume feeds sometime cause constipation. Legume feeds must be administered with particular care to pregnant animals. Grain must not be used if it is blackened, rotten, or seriously infected with fungi or if it contains harmful impurities that cannot be removed.