Cereal germ Cereal germ The germ of a cereal is the reproductive part that germinates to grow into a plant; it is the embryo of the seed. Along with bran, germ is often a by-product of the milling that produces refined grain products. Cereal grains and their components, such as wheat germ oil, rice bran oil, and maize, may be used as a source from which vegetable oil is extracted, or used directly as a food ingredient. The germ is retained as an integral part of whole-grain foods. Non-whole grain methods of milling are intended to isolate the endosperm, which is ground
Cover crop recycle soil nitrogen already present. The catch crops take up surplus nitrogen remaining from fertilization of the previous crop, preventing it from being lost through leaching (Morgan et al. 1942), or gaseous denitrification or volatilization (Thorup-Kristensen et al. 2003). Catch crops are typically fast-growing annual cereal species adapted to scavenge available nitrogen efficiently from the soil (Ditsch and Alley 1991). The nitrogen tied up in catch crop biomass is released back into the soil once the catch crop is incorporated as a green manure or otherwise begins to decompose. An example of green manure use comes from Nigeria, where the