What are oat hulls used for

So what is an oat hull? Think of it as the husk or outer shell that protects the seed of the oat plant. What we call the oat groats. As you see in the diagram below, the groat is the seed portion that has bran on the outside and an endosperm that contains the starch and the germ that is home to the oil or fat portion of the seed. 

With only 4% protein and 1% fat, there is not a lot of energy brought to the nutritional party by Oat hulls. It can be an important part of a ruminant diet though. ruminant animals like dairy cows need a lot of fiber in their diet So our farmers and feed mills utilize oat hulls as lettuce in the salad. It is a great way to help keep weight off cattle or to help add some dryness into a mixed feed that may have too high of moisture.

Many dairy farmers can utilize the Oat Hulls for their bred heifers. This is the group of females that are more than a year old, but are not producing milk yet. They are usually pregnant with their first calf. As they mature their diet needs to be monitored for energy consumption. If they get too much high energy corn or silage, they can get too fat and it is unhealthy for them while carrying their calf. 

This co-product is also utilized as bedding for multiple species. Turkey growers love to use oat hulls mixed with sawdust to help keep the turkey barns nice and dry. Dairy and beef producers utilize them as well as bedding. Especially during the economic downturn for construction, oat hulls were able to take the place of sawdust/wood shavings that were harder to find as less home construction was occurring. It also can be used by composting companies to help add some fiber and dry matter into their large composting operations. It adds a nice organic matter to their soil mixtures.

But today, the most important usage of oat hulls we will introduce is “press biomass oat hull pellets”. These oat hull pellets can be used as biomass fuel instead of oil, gas, coal. Friend environment is what we pursuit. Now oat hull pellets are accord with Environmental protection theme. So next, you may ask how to do oat hull pellets, please contact RotexMaster. Rotexmaster specialize in oat hull pellet machine.