<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The feed industry has attempted to encourage the animal husbandry sector to feed complete concentrate pellets containing ground grains in ruminant nutrition and thus prevent farmers from making concentrate in their farms. Reducing particle size using pre-pelleting grinding and pressing materials during pellet formation, plus starch gelatinization by heat treatment in the conditioner are key factors determining the extent and rate of starch digestion in ingested pellets. If prepelleting grinding of corn and barley grain for using in the pelleted concentrate results in ground materials of less than 1.8 mm mean particle size (especially in the case of barley grain which is highly fermentable), then it increases the rate of fermentability in the rumen which in turn increases the acidosis risk. Such situation and dissatisfaction from pellets feeding to ruminant have directed farmers to produce homemade mash concentrate which may include steam-flaked form of grains in the concentrate mixture. Pelleting process increases the time needed to collapse the pellet in the rumen so delays the access of microbes to fermentable organic matter. This counterbalance property highly depends on pellet size with highest effect obtained using 10 mm diameter pellets for cattle. Feeding separately steam-flaked grains (plus other pelleted/mash non-grain ingredients of concentrate) may give results similar to the complete concentrate pellets having ground grains prepared according to optimized recommendations (pellet diameter and grain mean particle size). Nonetheless cost benefit studies are necessary to adopt one of the above two optimized technologies that has higher starch utilization and lower fecal starch excretion by animal. In the situation where consuming steam-flaked grains has priority of application in the diet, it is strongly recommended to pellet non-grain portions of concentrate for obtaining numerous pellet advantages such as reducing transportation cost, dust, sorting and bird removal.</p></abstract>

The feed industry has attempted to encourage the animal husbandry sector to feed complete concentrate pellets containing ground grains in ruminant nutrition and thus prevent farmers from making concentrate in their farms. Reducing particle size using pre-pelleting grinding and pressing materials during pellet formation, plus starch gelatinization by heat treatment in the conditioner are key factors determining the extent and rate of starch digestion in ingested pellets. If prepelleting grinding of corn and barley grain for using in the pelleted concentrate results in ground materials of less than 1.8 mm mean particle size (especially in the case of barley grain which is highly fermentable), then it increases the rate of fermentability in the rumen which in turn increases the acidosis risk. Such situation and dissatisfaction from pellets feeding to ruminant have directed farmers to produce homemade mash concentrate which may include steam-flaked form of grains in the concentrate mixture. Pelleting process increases the time needed to collapse the pellet in the rumen so delays the access of microbes to fermentable organic matter. This counterbalance property highly depends on pellet size with highest effect obtained using 10 mm diameter pellets for cattle. Feeding separately steam-flaked grains (plus other pelleted/mash non-grain ingredients of concentrate) may give results similar to the complete concentrate pellets having ground grains prepared according to optimized recommendations (pellet diameter and grain mean particle size). Nonetheless cost benefit studies are necessary to adopt one of the above two optimized technologies that has higher starch utilization and lower fecal starch excretion by animal. In the situation where consuming steam-flaked grains has priority of application in the diet, it is strongly recommended to pellet non-grain portions of concentrate for obtaining numerous pellet advantages such as reducing transportation cost, dust, sorting and bird removal.

Feeding Complete Concentrate Pellets Containing Ground Grains or Blend of Steam-Flaked Grains and Other Concentrate Ingredients in Ruminant Nutrition – A Review

Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture

Annals of Animal Science

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The feed industry has attempted to encourage the animal husbandry sector to feed complete concentrate pellets containing ground grains in ruminant nutrition...

Feeding Complete Concentrate Pellets Containing Ground Grains or Blend of Steam-Flaked Grains and Other Concentrate Ingredients in Ruminant Nutrition – A Review

Published Online: Jan 28, 2020

Page range: 11 - 28

Received: Feb 27, 2019

Accepted: Aug 06, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/aoas-2019-0055

Keywords
ruminant, grain processing, steam-flaking, pelleting, particle size

© 2020 Seyed Hadi Ebrahimi, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Feeding Complete Concentrate Pellets Containing Ground Grains or Blend of Steam-Flaked Grains and Other Concentrate Ingredients in Ruminant Nutrition – A Review

Published Online: Jan 28, 2020

Page range: 11 - 28

Received: Feb 27, 2019

Accepted: Aug 06, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/aoas-2019-0055

Keywordsruminant, grain processing, steam-flaking, pelleting, particle size

© 2020 Seyed Hadi Ebrahimi, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
ruminant, grain processing, steam-flaking, pelleting, particle size