The horse-chestnut as a source of food for livestock. II. The value of alcohol-extracted horse-chestnut meal, water-extracted horse-chestnut meal and horse-chestnut residue as a partial substitute for cereals in the rations of bacon pigs

Abstract

Two large-scale feeding trials have been carried out with the object of testing the validity of findings from pig digestion trials in respect of the nutritive value of horse-chestnut residue (a by-product of the manufacture of saponin and glucose from horse-chestnuts); and of alcohol-extracted and water-extracted horse-chestnut meals.Trial I. The horse-chestnut residue was fed in two separate periods, the first from 50 to 100 lb. live weight, when the residue constituted 20 % of the total ration, and the second from 190 lb. to slaughter weight, when the allowance was increased to 30%. In both periods the residue replaced an equal percentage of ground oats in the control ration.