Micronised Barley and Maize

by **Dominator** » Tue May 21, 2013 8:00 am

The missus was getting some feed for her horses yesterday and I had a look around at their wares and found micronised barley. A quick grilling of the missus and some googling came up with some info. Basically they steam, heat then roll the grains. This gelatinizes the starches to make it easier for the horses to ferment in their hindgut. Wondering if this could save some time and effort for those who cook their grain. My supplier sells a 20kg bag of micronised barley for about $16.

by **bt1** » Tue May 21, 2013 8:05 am

Howdy Dom,

it certainly wouldn't hurt any...getting corn to give up starches ain't a lot of fun.... it takes time.

We'd still need to do the conversion rests for Beta and Alpha to rip the starches down to useable sugars but using this could reasonably expect a yield gain.

cheers
bt1

by **Dominator** » Tue May 21, 2013 10:02 am

Woops, forgot to put the links up...
http://mi-feed.com.au/
http://www.jamesandson.com.au/index.php ... ising-feed

by **Kravin** » Tue May 21, 2013 7:56 pm

It'll work, for sure.
I would probably mash it with about 10% of malted barley in the grain bill, just to make sure there's a decent amount of diastatic power to convert the starches. Any grain gelatinised can ferment out. Just need to ensure that you have the enzymes there to convert it. especially in this case where the product is dependant on the enzymes in the beasts gut.

Also, just as a caveat:
Grits\stock feed etc usually comes from lower quality grain. this could be due to some sort of disease/infection/infestation in the crop, lack of quality, or it's not quite up to ticking the "fit for human consumption" box.
Since these crops aren't destined for humans, they are exposed to pesticides and other chemicals to either treat or eradicate the 'issue', or just to salvage the crop at it's highest potential.
i'm no chemical engineer and don't know if these chemicals would transfer in the distillation process, but it's something to keep in mind.
Not saying this is the case with Micronised grain, any organic 'nasties' would be killed off in the process, and not trying to be a fear monger at all but pesticides and other chemicals may be blown off in the distilling process, or they may be concentrated.
Just something to keep in mind.