"Dan" wrote in message
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"Oz" wrote in message
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Jim Webster writes

Was it fed to sheep? or do any of our nutritionalists know if oats can
be fed to cattle un-rolled and still digested.

Barley certainly can be (and is), so I guess oats would be fine too.
Wheat is not so good as I understand it because the gluten makes it too
sticky, and stock don;t like it so much.

I suspect that you might have miss read the question - I am unaware of any
cereal grains that can be fed to cattle whole successfully. Barley passes
straight through judging by the evidence I have seen from when they have
found the grains in straw and eaten them whole.

Oats can be fed to calves with out much going though them while they are
still on their mothers.
Rolling will pay for doing it.

In the 1800's and the first part of the 1900's the feedlot used to run a mix
of hogs and cattle to utilize the undigested feed. The feed troughs were too
high for the hogs to get at and the cattle were fed whole grain. The feedlot
operator owned the hogs and fed the cattle for some one else. They fed whole
corn and barley.

In the 60's feed lots in the US started processing grain with steam before
rolling it make something very much like corn flake breakfast cereal. It
increased the digestibility of the grain enough over conventionally ground
grain that it was more economical to put cattle in the commercial lots than
feed them ourselves with paid for lots, grinding and mixing machinery. The
smell of feed lot changed when they went to steam flaking as well.

Gordon