Feed

feed, also called animal feed, food grown or developed for livestock and poultry. Modern feeds are produced by carefully selecting and blending ingredients to provide highly nutritional diets that both maintain the health of the animals and increase the quality of such end products as meat, milk, or eggs. Ongoing improvements in animal diets have resulted from research, experimentation, and chemical analysis by agricultural scientists.

Animals in general require the same nutrients as humans. Some feeds, such as pasture grasses, hay and silage crops, and certain cereal grains, are grown specifically for animals. Other feeds, such as sugar beet pulp, brewers’ grains, and pineapple bran, are by-products that remain after a food crop has been processed for human use. Surplus food crops, such as wheat, other cereals, fruits, vegetables, and roots, may also be fed to animals.

History does not record when dried roughage or other stored feeds were first given to animals. Most early records refer to nomadic peoples who, with their herds and flocks, followed the natural feed supplies. When animals were domesticated and used for work in crop production, some of the residues were doubtless fed to them.

The first scientific effort to evaluate feeds for animals on a comparative basis was probably made in 1809 by the German agriculturist Albrecht von Thaer, who developed “hay values” as measures of the nutritive value of feeds. Tables of the value of feeds and of the requirements of animals in Germany followed and were later used in other countries.

Preservation of green forages such as beet leaves and corn (maize) plants by packing them in pits in the earth has long been practiced in northern Europe. The idea of making silage as a means of preserving and utilizing more of the corn plant was gradually developed in Europe and was taken from France to the United States in the 1870s. When the mature, dried corn plant was fed to cattle in the winter, much of the coarse stem was wasted, but when it was chopped and ensiled (made into silage), everything was eaten. During the 20th century, concrete bunker silos for storage of silage became a common sight in many rural areas worldwide.