The Vitamin E Content of Certain Dairy Feeds

A study was made of the vitamin E content of each of the ingredients of our dairy herd ration, excepting the salt, lime, and bone meal. Female rats which were able to conceive but unable to reproduce when fed a diet deficient in vitamin E were fed the various feeds as a source of vitamin E during a second breeding period. The presence of vitamin E in a feed was thus shown by the ability of the female to cast a litter. The vitamin E content of bran, shorts, linseed oil meal, hominy feed, white corn, yellow corn, cottonseed meal, kafir, beet pulp, corn gluten feed, corn gluten meal, and alfalfa was examined. Twenty to twenty-five per cent of the bran, shorts, linseed oil meal, hominy feed, white corn, yellow corn, cottonseed meal, kafir, or alfalfa furnished sufficient vitamin E to allow the rats to cast litters. On the other hand, forty per cent of the corn gluten meal, the corn gluten feed, or the beet pulp furnished very little vitamin E. There was no significant difference in the vitamin E content of the white and yellow corn used.