Cottonseed

Cottonseed is the seed of the cotton plant. The mature seeds are brown ovoids weighing about a tenth of a gram. By weight, they are 60% cotyledon, 32% coat and 8% embryonic root and shoot. These are 20% protein, 20% oil and 3.5% starch. Fibers grow from the seed coat to form a boll of cotton lint. The boll is a protective fruit and when the plant is grown commercially, it is stripped from the seed by ginning and the lint is then processed into cotton fibre. For unit weight of fibre, about 1.6 units of seeds are produced. The seeds are about 15% of the value of the crop and are pressed to make oil and used as ruminant animal feed. About 5% of the seeds are used for sowing the next crop. Cottonseed is crushed in the mill after removing lint from the cotton boll. The seed is further crushed to remove any remaining linters or strands of minute cotton fibers. The seeds are further hulled and polished to release the soft and high-protein meat. These hulls of the cottonseed are then mixed with other types of grains to make it suitable for the livestock feed. Cottonseed meal and hulls are one of the most abundantly available natural sources of protein and fiber used to feed livestock. Cottonseed as supplement is marketed primarily towards agricultural sectors that feed dairy cows. Some feedlots use corn to supplement the forage diets of cows; high starch diets, such as those in corn supplemented diets, can lead to liver damage in cows. Cottonseed is considered a safer alternative to corn supplemented diets due to its low starch content. Cottonseed as livestock feed must also be monitored for safety since the foodstuff is high in energy/fat and too much fat content in a cow's diet can disrupt its ability to digest fiber, leading to other complications. Cottonseed meal Cottonseed meal is a good source of protein. The two types of meal extraction processes are solvent extraction and mechanical extraction. Most of the meal is extracted mechanically through cottonseed kernels.