Comparison of caustic soda-treated barley and rolled barley in the ration of dairy cows

A trial was conducted with 28 milking cows individually fed in pens over a 10-week period to test the hypothesis that processing of barley grain by spraying with a caustic soda solution would have advantages over rolling the grain, at least at the higher level of 50% barley in the complete ration. Spray treatment was found to be a suitable alternative but had no significant advantage for milk yield and composition, or liveweight gain. Intake was higher in the initial period with caustic soda-treated barley, but the difference did not persist beyond the second week. The cost of spraying the grain was greater than the cost of crushing it.