Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1917 — SHOULD USE CHEAPER RATIONS [ARTICLE]

SHOULD USE CHEAPER RATIONS

Fodder, Straw and Other Roughages Make Good Rations. . “It is time to quit shoveling grain indiscriminately into live stock. Good live-stock farming demands it and the need of more food requires it. Feeding grain to meat animals with a lavish hand is responsible for one of the greatest feed losses on the farms of this country. Hay,“ fodder, silage, and pasture are the cheapest feeds and will carry animals along with a minimum of grain. Keep the frames of the young animals developing on these cheap feeds. Withhold the full grain ration until the finishing ■ period arrives. Breeding cattle may be wintered on the cheaper feeds.” This advice of animal-husbandry specialists of the United States Department of Agriculture to stocn feeders is not emergency adivce only; it is the sound logic of meat production, which American farmers must learn if they are to com' pete successfully with European meat producers in the coming generations. These are good days to learn the lesson of feed conservation. In Farmers’ Bulletin 873, “The Utilization of Farm Wastes in Feeding Live Stock,” specialists tell how to use these cheaper feeds in rations for cattle, sheep and horses. „ A tremendous w’aste of feeding stuffs occurs annually on American farms, according to figures presented in this publication. In 1914 about 120,000,000 tons of straw were produced in the United States. Of this amount 55 per cent was fed to live stock, 15 per cent was burned, 8 per cent sold, and 22 per cent plowed under or otherwise disposed of. Cffrn stover produced in the United States estimated at 245,253,000 tons, of which 81% per cent is fed to cattle and other stock. No figures were obtained to show the percentage that is w’asted in the feeding, but at least 35 per cent of the total amount produced represents actual wraste. This waste of corn stover can be checked,.fit is said, through use of better methods of feeding fodder and stover and it can be almost entirely stopped through the use of silos. Straw’ and stover are best utilized for feed w’hen accompanied by concentrates, such as cottonseed meal. If the large amounts of cottonseed meal ordinarily used for fertilizer in* the South were, instead, fed to live stock and the manure used for fertilizer, the value of the meal would be increased from 50 to 85 per cent. Practical experience as well as experimental work has taught that straw and stover can be used very economically in the rations of almost all kinds of live stock. They can .be used in the fattening rations of all farm animals except hogs and should compose the larger part of all wintering or keeping rations of cattle, sheep and horses. Breeding herds of beef cattle or dry dairy cows can be successfully kept on rations composed largely of these roughages. Flocks of breedin'g ewes do well on such feeds when some grain is added. Horses doing very light work or no work at all need little grain if given a plentiful allowance of clean, light straw\ or stover. " Under certain conditions, of course, grain should be added to the ration, but now it should be conserved as largely as possible for huinan consumption. The bulletin mentioned suggests various rations which are made up principally of these waste feeds.