"Hot" feeds

[duckduckturkey]

Hi!

I didn't want to hijack bovines thread, but what is meant by "hot" feeds? And what is meant by overheating your chickens with scratch?

I toss a couple of handfuls of cracked corn and rice grain into the yard every day to keep the girls busy scratching for food. Is that too much? I'm chicky sitting 14 hens. (though one suspected rooster.)

Thanks!

 

[flowergirl60]

It has been posted here that chicken scratch raises their body temp. And was not advised to use in summer. I don't know if that is true or not, but as hot as it is here in Texas I just avoid it to be safe. I throw out Black oil sunflower seeds instead in the morning. And I don't give any treats during the heat of the day except frozen fruit or cold lettuce, cold tomatoes. Good luck on hen sitting. It's nice to see someone taking the time to ask questions sitting someone else's hen. My BIL will be sitting our hens in a couple of weeks and I don't think he's going to do as much as I do for them.

 

[Chris09]

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It means its a High Energy Feed.

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Some people are misinformed, they think that a "Hot" High Energy Feed like Scratch will "Overheat" or make a chicken warmer but this is untrue.

Chris

 

[briteday]

The way we measure energy produced by food is by "calories." 1 calorie = the amount of energy to raise 1 gram of water 1 degree C.

One gram of protein or carbohydrate = 4 calories. One gram of fat = 9 calories.

So just find the breakdown of protein, carbs, and fat for each ingredient. Then multiply by the appropriate number of calories (most food contains all three...protein, carb, fat so add them together) and you'll know which provides more calories per gram. i.e. which feed contains more calories = heat.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

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That quick and dirty calculation will get you a Gross Energy value for a feedstuff, but it won't give you the value of the energy that is either available or used by the animal.

Energy (heat) is lost from animals from various manners: respiration, urine, metabolism. Nutritionists spend much time attempting to provide rations with the appropriate energy content for growth and maintenance.

In the feed industry the term "Hot Feed" is used typically to describe a ration that might cause Ruminal Acidosis in cattle because of a hig starch content. We actually feed diets with much greater energy content to pigs, but they aren't "Hot Feeds" since the pig can not get Ruminal Acidosis.

Our knowledge of energy and metabolism has lead us (me specifically as a Swine Nutritionist) to use ingredients to reduce the amount of Soybean Meal and intact proteins in sow rations in the summer in an attempt to reduce the heat of metabolism from the degradation of amino acids through deamination. We aren't trying to keep the sows cool, rather reducing the heat of metabolism caused by the "burning" of ATPs in the cascade of reactions needed to remove excess proteins from the body.

Jim