# Whole corn or cracked?



## Firefly

Chickens, turkeys, ducks, Muscovies, and geese. I've added a little corn for winter. All I could find was whole corn; everyone is eating it and seems to be digesting it, except the ducks (Cayuga and runner), who won't eat it. Do they need cracked corn or do they just not like corn?


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## chickenista

Be very, very careful with whole corn. Those are some really big chunks for the birds to digest. Make sure they have lots of gravel and grit to eat to grind it down well.. not just sand.
A blocked crop is a slow and miserable way to go and with large pieces like that getting the crop unblocked is very difficult.


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## Firefly

Hmm. Thanks for that advice chickenista! Right now they roam at will but of course when the snow falls that will change. I will put out some snow gravel for them, it has all sizes of rocks up to ~1/2". I'll also look for cracked corn or maybe scratch. Not sure what scratch is, though!


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## chickenista

Scratch is usually a three grain mix.. seriously cracked corn, oats and wheat..though the mixture will depend on the mill bagging it.
Bird seed is also a favorite and is a great way to get the birds to clean their own coop. They must find every single little millet seed.


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## Guest

I feed five or six thousand pounds of whole corn a year to my birds. It's cheaper than cracked and keeps better.

Bobwhite quail and gray doves have no problem eating whole corn straight out of the corn field. Chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese won't have any problems with it either. If they are not on the ground you would be well served to supply some grit on the side, but otherwise they can eat it as-is. 

Just don't feed so much of it that you unbalance the rations you're already feeding. Also, being new they may not take much to it right off (or they may gobble it up).


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## Firefly

Oh boy...LOL! Well, I _can_ get all the whole corn I need from the farmer down the road, and it's cheap, so maybe I'll stick with that. After he harvested I gleaned an ear and no one would touch it! Now they all like it except, like I said, the ducks. I'll look for millet, too. The corn is $6 for 50lbs and feed is ~$12, but bird seed is $10-20 for 20lbs! I realize it's only a treat, but still...


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## Guest

Just remember there's a reason why chicken feed is so much more than plain old corn. If you're feeding ordinary 16% layer ration then keep the corn to only about a half-handul per bird per day in the cold weather.


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## rabbitpatch

chickenista said:


> They must find every single little millet seed.


Unless you have some picky chickens like mine that will not touch millet. One of my rooster will pick out every single tiny shred of everything else and leave a bowl half full of millet. I've even tried leaving the millet and not feeding him anything else for as long as 2 days to try and _make_ him eat it. Silly bird still won't touch it.


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## Dead Rabbit

crack corn is trash....no health benefit to it. the healthy goodness found in corn is in the germ. the instant the germ is cracked, the goodness starts going out of it. so if its been cracked and bagged sitting at a feed store and stored there, stored at your place, there is nothing to it. its nothing but junk food filler.

if feeding crack corn, you must crack it yourself and then feed it directly to the fowl. b/c it will be worthless in a day.

whole corn is good to give during the winter. it will help warm the fowl on the cold days and night. its not the corn it self but the grinding motion of the gizzard that is creating energy,,,energy creates heat. 

to much corn will build fat. a good practice is to mix pellets two scoops to one scoop of whole corn. then add a lil somethin extra to help up the protein. like dog food or cat food. which is a good source of animal protein. as long as its not some cheap low quality dog/cat food.

my lil OEGBantams will eat whole corn, any standard size fowl, duck or goose will have no problem at all eating corn.

dont waste money on crack corn. its junk and whole corn is cheaper...imagine that.


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## pancho

Right about the cracked corn. Almost useless. If corn looses the germ it isn't worth hauling home. Whole corn or no corn at all.


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## Lazy J

Dead Rabbit said:


> crack corn is trash....no health benefit to it. the healthy goodness found in corn is in the germ. the instant the germ is cracked, the goodness starts going out of it. so if its been cracked and bagged sitting at a feed store and stored there, stored at your place, there is nothing to it. its nothing but junk food filler.
> 
> if feeding crack corn, you must crack it yourself and then feed it directly to the fowl. b/c it will be worthless in a day..


This is completely FALSE! Where in the world do you get your information?


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## Dead Rabbit

Lazy J said:


> This is completely FALSE! Where in the world do you get your information?


im always willing to learn....prove me wrong.


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## clovis

An interesting thread. I was just wondering about whole corn to chickens just the other day.

Thanks for posting this topic!!!! I'm learning some new stuff!!!


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## Lazy J

Corn is used as a source of energy in livestock feeds. Teh corn kernal consistes of four parts: Endosperm, Germ, Bran Coat (pericarp), and the Tip Cap. The Endosperm accounts for about 83% of the kernal and is almost 90% starch. The Germ makes up 11% of the kernal and contains virtually all of the oil found in the kernal. The coat and tip cap contain most of the fiber.

We grind corn to improve the digestibility by increasing the surface area available for digestion by enzymes in the gut. The griniding also exposes the oil to oxygen which may result in the formation of peroxides and the cascade toward rancidity. However, this process does not occur over night.

The degradation of the starches and fiver in the kernal require mositure and the appropriace enzymes, this degradation does not occur immediately and most certainly not overnight. As long as the ground corn is kept in a cool, dry environment it will maintain it's quality and nutrients for several months.

Jim


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## Dead Rabbit

Lazy J said:


> Corn is used as a source of energy in livestock feeds. Teh corn kernal consistes of four parts: Endosperm, Germ, Bran Coat (pericarp), and the Tip Cap. The Endosperm accounts for about 83% of the kernal and is almost 90% starch. The Germ makes up 11% of the kernal and contains virtually all of the oil found in the kernal. The coat and tip cap contain most of the fiber.
> 
> We grind corn to improve the digestibility by increasing the surface area available for digestion by enzymes in the gut. The griniding also exposes the oil to oxygen which may result in the formation of peroxides and the cascade toward rancidity. However, this process does not occur over night.
> 
> The degradation of the starches and fiver in the kernal require mositure and the appropriace enzymes, this degradation does not occur immediately and most certainly not overnight. As long as the ground corn is kept in a cool, dry environment it will maintain it's quality and nutrients for several months.
> 
> Jim


Jim if look this subject up there is a difference in ground corn and cracked corn. difference in nutrition and in uses. im speaking of cracked corn, your post mentions ground corn.

cracking it does slightly improve digestability but it does not improve total tract starch digestion......
the OP wanted to know about adding corn for winter. the digestion is what creates heat for cold weather. so quicker digestion would be counter productive in this regard.

i cannot find now where i read about the germ when cracked loses all its nutrition quickly. but its been read thats for sure. here is an interesting link on whole grains and their nutritional value over processing................http://www.raysahelian.com/wholegrains.html

this was also an interesting link...its on feeding cattle. but i cant find anything that shows an educated study on feeding whole corn vs. cracked corn to poultry. perhaps its all the same. but i doubt it. the methods of digestion in poultry is vastly different than in ruminets. 

http://cals.arizona.edu/ans/swnmc/Proceedings/2008/16Zinn_08.pdf


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## Dead Rabbit

> The griniding also exposes the oil to oxygen which may result in the formation of peroxides and the cascade toward rancidity. However, this process does not occur over night.
> 
> The degradation of the starches and fiver in the kernal require mositure and the appropriace enzymes, this degradation does not occur immediately and most certainly not overnight. As long as the ground corn is kept in a cool, dry environment it will maintain it's quality and nutrients for several months


the exposure causing rancidity makes sense. but can you give me alink to more info on how long it takes for this to take place. another words proof that it will maintain its quality for as long as you claim? because what i read (and cant prove, right now) says otherwise. 

thanks.


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## CarolT

This discussion got me looking because I also feed cracked corn and wanted to know if I was throwing my money away. Here's a little of what I found, not for chickens, but their systems may work closely enough for this to be relevant?

I know this is for pigs, but a study on whole vs processed corn in pigs says: "In conclusion, fractionation of corn through dry milling results in hulls, endosperm (throughs and tails), and germ. Each of these fractions has a unique nutritional makeup and, as a result, unique digestibility. In this study, especially germ had a very poor digestibility of P, DM, and AA, whereas endosperm had a high DM digestibility. Extrusion of corn improved DM digestibility. These data thus suggest that corn varieties with a low germ content or extruded corn would be preferred for swine nutrition when the objective is maximizing nutritional value and minimizing nutrient excretion" Link: http://jas.fass.org/cgi/content/full/85/7/1695 

And it's for human nutrition, but this site claims:"Corn germ is made by a process that isolates the embryo of the corn plant, which contains the most useful nutrients. Corn germ has a longer shelf life than wheat germ and is higher in some nutrients, especially zinc. Corn germ contains ten times the amount of zinc found in wheat germ. You can use corn germ to bread chicken or fish. It is also good when added to cereals and used as a topping." Link: http://www.moondragon.org/health/nutritionbasics/supplements/corngerm.html


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## Lazy J

Dead Rabbit said:


> i cannot find now where i read about the germ when cracked loses all its nutrition quickly. but its been read thats for sure. here is an interesting link on whole grains and their nutritional value over processing................http://www.raysahelian.com/wholegrains.html


The article you posted does not show that cracking corn causes problems. Rather that consuming "whole or cracked grains" provides health benefits compared to heavily processed human foods.

Feeding whole grains in poultry has been shown to improve gut health, increase gizzard and crop size, and can decrease feed cost per dozen eggs. 

Jim


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## Lazy J

Dead Rabbit said:


> the exposure causing rancidity makes sense. but can you give me alink to more info on how long it takes for this to take place. another words proof that it will maintain its quality for as long as you claim? because what i read (and cant prove, right now) says otherwise.
> 
> thanks.


When we attempt to produce rancid fat for use in resarch diets we heat Choice White Grease to 80 C and bubble pure oxygen though it to force the formation of peroxides and the rancidity cascade. In this extreme environment it takes 5 to 7 days to produce rancidity.

A similar process is used to test high fat pet foods and use 30 to mimic a 6 month shelf life.

Since corn has a very low oil content and is a vegetable oil the risk of rancidity is extremely low.

Jim


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## brownegg

I prefer to keep things easy and natural....whole corn works best for my flock and me. I also have fed thousands of pounds of whole corn without ever a compacted crop. Keep the grit available when free ranging isn't possible. The flock will be fine, and the finiky ones can just eat out of the feeder and miss the treats. it's their choice. We all don't love chocolate, do we?
brownegg


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## Dead Rabbit

there is great health benefits to feeding FRESHLY cracked corn. many a man, when feeding out sporting or production fowl, will crack corn and feed it right then and there. its a common practice. and a very good one.

but the act of cracking corn and then storing it,,,for who knows how long, is when its starts to lose its value. 

i could not find a study or link to show me how long it retains its health value. but when a man cracks it as mentioned below. the practice is done daily and fed then and there with no holding of the left over cracked corn. this practice is used to get the full value of the corn kernal, but helps with the digestion b/c you want the bird to quickly pass what he has been eating. another practice is to just grind it up and it will pass through the bird even quicker, yet they will bet the full nutrional value of the corn/germ.

this has nothing to do with rancidity of oil in the corn. thats a whole nother story. but i found what you mentioned interesting because i have never heard o that negative prospect before.

but with me now knowing that there is a possiblilty of rancidity of the oil. that just adds one more reason for me to feed whole corn. which will keep for a very long period of time.


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## suelandress

I use cracked corn as part of my feed mix (yes, it IS pretty much filler) but I also sprout whole corn for them, as they won't touch it dry. They have fun with the "wormy looking things" sprouting out of the corn seed


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## Dead Rabbit

suelandress said:


> I use cracked corn as part of my feed mix (yes, it IS pretty much filler) but I also sprout whole corn for them, as they won't touch it dry. They have fun with the "wormy looking things" sprouting out of the corn seed


im curious as to your method of sprouting whole corn. ive sprouted oats many times. im wondering if its the same method?


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## suelandress

I soak them for 24 hours (give or take) drain them and leave them in collanders till they sprout, rinsing occassionally. It usually takes a couple of days after the soak for the sprout to appear. It's the same way I do oats and wheat. Lentils and peas have to be done seperately as they sprout while you're looking


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## Dead Rabbit

suelandress said:


> I soak them for 24 hours (give or take) drain them and leave them in collanders till they sprout, rinsing occassionally. It usually takes a couple of days after the soak for the sprout to appear. It's the same way I do oats and wheat. Lentils and peas have to be done seperately as they sprout while you're looking


yup similar method. have you ever fermented oats?


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## suelandress

Dead Rabbit said:


> yup similar method. have you ever fermented oats?


 
No. Are you getting your chicken drunk?


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## Dead Rabbit

suelandress said:


> No. Are you getting your chicken drunk?


no. i used to feed fermented oats. but i quit doing this few yrs back. some fellas swear by them. the fermentation actually ups the protein level. its a good method for making the oats and its hulls more digestable, and getting moisture into fowl esp. on hot days. fowl love to eat this.

i found soaking the oats did all of the above except uping protein, w/o actually fermenting them.

i was wondering if you fermented corn....lol.


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## suelandress

LOL. No fermented corn, but the girls do like the wild grapes when they ferment.

Sprouting oats should increase the protein_ percentage _since the seed uses carbs as it's energy to sprout....same as the other seeds. The protein amount itself does not increase, just the percentage.


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## chickenista

I have done the 5 gallon bucket methos for sprouting before.. a series of 5 buckets, First bucket for the soak, then the other buckets for sprouting. I do it in a cycle so that each day there is a bucket full of sprouts and each day I take that now empty bucket and start over again.
Darn near impossible to keep the stupid chickens out of the buckets though once they learned what buckets held. 
I could have come up with a way to do it near the water source and keep them out of it but.. meh. Maybe someday I will revisit..


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## Firefly

I was going to do sprouts this winter and never thought to do corn sprouts. Thanks Sue! When I had pigs I would soak corn in raw milk for a couple of days and they loved that; I bet the chickens would too. You can leave it for weeks, even, but it must be raw milk; pasteurized will spoil. If it's just a day or two in cool temp pasteurized should be OK.


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## suelandress

They probably would love that....and my husband would have a fit if I bought milk for the chickens


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## Firefly

You can get free milk that is past the pull date, just be sure to tell them it's for livestock. Off brands of powdered milk are pretty cheap, too.


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## suelandress

Ok, didn't you just say that the pasteurized stuff will go bad?


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## Firefly

Yes but it would be fine for a couple of days.


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## katydidagain

Firefly said:


> Yes but it would be fine for a couple of days.


Or you can freeze it.


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## Firefly

katydidagain said:


> Or you can freeze it.


True! But for sprouting you have to leave it at room temp. With pasteurized milk I wouldn't do it for more than a couple of days. They won't have greens at that stage but they'll taste sweet. I'm going to try this and see how they like it. And also do regular green sprouts for my geese. I just love this idea b/c corn is so cheap. I was going to give them alfalfa and broccoli sprouts which are quite an investment! The other thing I'm going to try is to grow wheat or greens in trays of dirt so I can harvest it a few times as it grows. Has anyone tried that?


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## suelandress

LOL. Yeah, I grew greens in seed trays figuring I'd swap the trays and keep rotating them for the winter. but the chickens had other ideas.....eat the dirt....so I only ended up doing one round. I suppose harvesting the greens might have worked better


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## Dead Rabbit

i was thinking on this cracked corn deal today..........after jarring my memory, i do now recall many yrs back i had a whole bag of cracked corn, and the fowl wouldnt eat it. none of it. and i couldnt figure it out. everything on Gods green earth likes corn, esp. cracked corn, but not this bag....

im wondering now if the corn in it was rancid and i didnt know it. at times the fowl are smarter than i am.


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## Dead Rabbit

RedneckPete said:


> Wow. What a one sided debate.
> 
> Seriously. I can't believe Jim humoured the other posters as long as he has. Come to the table with at least a tiny bit of proof for your position. Making ludicrous statements and then asking those who call you on it to prove their position is just stupid. The quote below says it all.
> 
> 
> 
> BTW, I feed corn, whole and cracked all the time. Never had a problem with either.
> 
> Perhaps Dead Rabbit could explain to me where all the heat generated by the gizzard grinding away on the whole corn kernels comes from.
> 
> Pete


aaannndddd...whats wrong with asking for proof to back up what one states? you obviously disagree with and question what i just come right out and state. so why shouldnt i do the same.

as stated im willing to learn. fowl is my favorite subject so any info that isnt the run of the mill type, i find fascinating.

now why wouldnt the grinding motion of the gizzard when really working hard on an extremely hard grain, not create heat? the more corn, the more grinding digestion, the more heat? just a thought...what says ye?


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## Dead Rabbit

couple of interesting links:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4477285_keep-chickens-cool-summer.html

look at tip number 2.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Raising-Chickens-in-the-Winter&id=3503243

look at winter tip number 3.


there were numerous other written sources. but they all pretty much say the same thing. and just the general idea of digestion creating heat makes sense to me. im sold on the idea.


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## Cyngbaeld

Goodness, I never thought a discussion over whole vs cracked corn could degenerate into name calling and a fuss. You guys cool it, please.


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## RedneckPete

Dead Rabbit said:


> now why wouldnt the grinding motion of the gizzard when really working hard on an extremely hard grain, not create heat? the more corn, the more grinding digestion, the more heat? just a thought...what says ye?


The contraction of muscles (any muscles not just the gizzard) burns sugar and produces heat. The basic process is the same as if you burned the corn in your wood stove. It would produce heat that way too.

Bottom line is, when your birds need to stay warm, they need food to burn. If the heat isn't produced in the gizzard, the bird will shiver (similar muscle contractions) and produce heat that way. Crack a grain, and it will produce the exact same amount of energy and heat during digestion as a whole grain in any bird.

The heat produced is actually stored sunlight. A certain number of sunlight units have been stored in a grain of corn. It really doesn't matter how you release them.

Pete


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## suelandress

RedneckPete said:


> The heat produced is actually stored sunlight. A certain number of sunlight units have been stored in a grain of corn. It really doesn't matter how you release them.
> 
> Pete


 
Now THAT I would like to see documentation of.


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## Dead Rabbit

RedneckPete said:


> The contraction of muscles (any muscles not just the gizzard) burns sugar and produces heat. The basic process is the same as if you burned the corn in your wood stove. It would produce heat that way too.
> 
> Bottom line is, when your birds need to stay warm, they need food to burn. If the heat isn't produced in the gizzard, the bird will shiver (similar muscle contractions) and produce heat that way. Crack a grain, and it will produce the exact same amount of energy and heat during digestion as a whole grain in any bird.
> 
> The heat produced is actually stored sunlight. A certain number of sunlight units have been stored in a grain of corn. It really doesn't matter how you release them.
> 
> Pete



i believe id much rather have my fowl produce heat by workin that gizzard hard (harder on a whole grain of corn than on a partial broke up grain) than i would want them to produce heat by shivering.

units of sunlight?? id have to see a link to back that one up.

and even though this isnt part of your post, i still cant wrap my lil ol mind around the fact that a cracked grain is healthier than in its whole state. ive read plenty in the past couple nights where some say it is, and some say its equivalent....but i just cant seem to process that fact. seems illogical to me.


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## suelandress

RedneckPete said:


> Read away:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis
> 
> Pete
> 
> If you are too lazy to educate yourself, you really only need to read the first sentence....


 
LOL. That is a stretch...calling it a unit of sunlight. It is sunlight converted to carbon or storable energy. Quite different that cracking open a kernel of corn and watcing the sun peek out.


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## RedneckPete

suelandress said:


> LOL. That is a stretch...calling it a unit of sunlight. It is sunlight converted to carbon or storable energy. Quite different that cracking open a kernel of corn and watcing the sun peek out.


When you face the sun on a beautiful summer day, the same heat you feel on your face is captured by the plants and incorporated into their structure. When that plant is a tree, you release that heat by burning the log in your wood stove. When that plant is a corn plant, you, or your chicken release that energy by eating the grain.

No one suggested that cracking a kernel of corn allowed the sun to peek out. Digesting a kernel of corn does exactly that.

Pete


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## Dead Rabbit

suelandress said:


> LOL. That is a stretch...calling it a unit of sunlight. It is sunlight converted to carbon or storable energy. Quite different that cracking open a kernel of corn and watcing the sun peek out.


i agree. i guess the same principle applies to the rain that falls to feed that corn plant. eating that kernal of corn releases the drops of moisture that the plant drew up from the soil to produce the well kernaled cob of corn hidding beneath that silky tassel.


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## suelandress

Sure some of that moisture comes from rain. The rest comes from the deer when they peed in the field  
But seriously,we don't measure the energy in food in sunlight units. Would make dieting sound a lot better though!


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## RedneckPete

We measure food energy in calories. A calorie is a set unit of energy first defined almost 200 years ago as a unit of heat.

If you spit a piece of firewood does the energy content of the wood change?

Pete


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## Dead Rabbit

nice analogy...

but it takes a much hotter/bigger flame to burn that solid chunk of fire wood than it does a piece thats split up like kindling wood. another words it takes more energy to consume the gasses the wood emits which is what actually burns.

same way it takes more energy/or work to digest a whole piece of corn in comparison to a cracked piece of corn.

which kinda takes us back to the whole vs. cracked. im bettin a whole piece or wood has more gas in its fibers than a split piece, same as a whole kernal has more "energy" in it in comparison to a cracked kernal.


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## Dead Rabbit

RedneckPete said:


> We measure food energy in calories. A calorie is a set unit of energy first defined almost 200 years ago as a unit of heat.
> 
> If you spit a piece of firewood does the energy content of the wood change?
> 
> Pete


id say there is quite a difference in the term calorie and sunlight units.


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## Lazy J

Dead Rabbit said:


> which kinda takes us back to the whole vs. cracked. im bettin a whole piece or wood has more gas in its fibers than a split piece, same as a whole kernal has more "energy" in it in comparison to a cracked kernal.


A unit of corn will have the same amount of Gross Energy in both a kernal or as ground corn. The ground corn will be typically more digestible since there is a greater amount of surface area for the enzyme and digestive chemicals to metabolize the nutrients in the corn.

Think about a fire, it is much easier to burn kindling than a whole log.

Jim


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## Dead Rabbit

Lazy J said:


> A unit of corn will have the same amount of Gross Energy in both a kernal or as ground corn. The ground corn will be typically more digestible since there is a greater amount of surface area for the enzyme and digestive chemicals to metabolize the nutrients in the corn.
> 
> Think about a fire, it is much easier to burn kindling than a whole log.
> 
> Jim


i understand what your saying. im not sold on the idea, but your reasoning makes sense. but it also supports my theory that the whole kernal is harder to digest, the gizzard must worker harder. the harder work creates more internal heat. so IMO its not so much the corn, (whereas it is a "hot" grain) but its the energy needed to digest it. esp. in its original whole shape.

equivalent to you wearing your insulated carharts and walking uphill, compared to running uphill. same hill, same insulation, same man, but more energy exerted in running. you are much warmer.

enuff of me talkin in circles. ive enjoyed the conversation and the learning. nuff said outa me.


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## Lazy J

Dead Rabbit said:


> i understand what your saying. im not sold on the idea, but your reasoning makes sense.



Believe what you want, but the by Wondra et al. at Kansas State University clearly illustrates the improvement in digestibility of corn/feed with decreased particle size.

In swine rations the reduction of feed particle size from 900 microns to 600 microns is equivalent to the addition of 50 lbs of Choice White Grease per ton of feed due to the improvement in digestibility of the feed.

Jim


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## suelandress

Dead Rabbit already said that the digestion of the cracked was easier. The question was if the difficulty in grinding the whole piece produced more heat.
it is my understanding that energy never decreases, just changes form and place. So is it costing the chicken more energy to grind that large piece, or is the large piece causing better heat?


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## mustangsally17

During the winter months here in MN my girls laying slows down but doesnt stop completly so ,I get a sac of cracked corn and wheat mix and combine with my laying pellets just to stretch things during the winter months. It has worked well for me and my girls seem fine.


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## CarolT

I thought the discussion started off with corn losing it's nutritional value by being cracked vs whole. Now it seems to be digestion speed? When I try to lose weight, I'm told to eat food that take longer to digest because it helps with weight loss. Therefore, if whole corn is harder to digest and burns more calories by making the crop work that much harder to digest, it would seem to me the chickens would get more fuel from the cracked corn? I feed both, I don't seem to notice a big difference from either. Since I also know that some things, like broccoli, allow different vitamins to be absorbed depending on preparation (steamed vs raw), maybe cracked vs whole corn also has pros and cons to each type? I also know you can talk till you're blue in the face, but if someone is convinced already, you're not going to change their mind, regardless if they say they're willing to consider evidence to the contrary  It all boils down to conviction, you have to follow your own.


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## suelandress

CarolT said:


> I thought the discussion started off with corn losing it's nutritional value by being cracked vs whole. Now it seems to be digestion speed? When I try to lose weight, I'm told to eat food that take longer to digest because it helps with weight loss. Therefore, if whole corn is harder to digest and burns more calories by making the crop work that much harder to digest, it would seem to me the chickens would get more fuel from the cracked corn? I feed both, I don't seem to notice a big difference from either. Since I also know that some things, like broccoli, allow different vitamins to be absorbed depending on preparation (steamed vs raw), maybe cracked vs whole corn also has pros and cons to each type? I also know you can talk till you're blue in the face, but if someone is convinced already, you're not going to change their mind, regardless if they say they're willing to consider evidence to the contrary  It all boils down to conviction, you have to follow your own.


Well Carol, one thing I'm convinced of, is that no matter what they tell you to eat to lose weight, the hips never heard that


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## Firefly

ROFL Sue!


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## CarolT

ROFL Sue!! I heard that, too! Just goes to show, even what the studies show, reality can be different LOL


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