Loyal F. Payne

The Importance of Herbage in Poultry Management

Abstract IN RECENT years poultrymen have renewed interest in the enhanced value of green soil-grown crops which appear to be high in nutritive value, especially protein, vitamins A and G, and perhaps other unknown factors. Heretofore, primary emphasis was placed on the need for succulence in poultry rations as furnished by sprouted grains and tubers. Of the 6,000 or more species of tame and wild grasses, only five—oats, barley, Sudan grass, wheat, and rye—are used extensively in the Middle West for poultry feeding. This study, recently completed at the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, deals with the economic efficiency of cereal grasses, alfalfa, and milk in poultry management. PARTIAL REVIEW OF LITERATURE Chickens have probably utilized herbage in their diets in one form or another ever since their origin. Beebe (1925) relates that the Jungle Fowl, said to be the progenitor of present day poultry, consumes large quantities of tender . . .