Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 12, Number 9, DeMotte, Jasper County, 8 January 1942 — Protein Content No Sure Sign of Feeding Qualities [ARTICLE]

Protein Content No Sure Sign of Feeding Qualities

During recent years, the idea has grown up in the minds of many farmers that the protein content shown on a feed tag is a sure indication of feeding value. “We want a feed with a high protein content,” many say. However, points out E. H. Hamel, manager of the fattening department of Purina Mills, the protein content of a feed can be very misleading. Just because a feed is high in protein is no sure indication that it is high in feeding value, he claims. Proteins, as such, vary greatly in their ability to meet feeding requirements. “At the Purina Experimental Farm, Gray Summit, Missouri, we have found

that a low-protein mixed concentrate frequently is more satisfactory for putting on pounds of pork or beef than one high in protein,” he reports. “After all, that’s what we’re most interested in getting. It doesn’t mean a thing to us if the analysis of a mixed concentrate shows that it is high in protein. In fact some of the most costly ingredients of the mixed concentrates we distribute nationally contain very little protein.” Hamel compares the making of a good protein supplement with the manufacture of a machine. The machinery manufacturer, he argues, has to sell his product on the basis of what it costs and what it will do —not on the pounds of iron it contains. In the same way, concentrates and feeds must be sold on the basis of what they do and what it costs to make them rather than on their protein content.