The Stock-Feeder's Manual: the chemistry of food in relation to the breeding and feeding of live stockCameron, Charles Alexander, Sir
Science
The Stock-Feeder's Manual: the chemistry of food in relation to the breeding and feeding of live stock
Cameron, Charles Alexander, Sir
Feeds; Livestock
Two lots of year-old cattle were fed; the one in the usual
way--sliced turnips and straw, _ad libitum_--the others with
the minced turnips, mixed with cut straw. The first lot consumed
daily 84 lbs. sliced turnips, 1 lb. oil-cake, 1 lb. rape-cake,
1/2 lb. bean-meal, broken small and mixed with a little salt,
and what straw they liked. The second lot ate, each, daily,
50 lbs. minced turnips, 1 lb. oil-cake, 1 lb. rape-cake, 1/2 lb.
bean-meal, and a little salt, the whole being mixed with double
the bulk of cut straw or wheat chaff. In spring, the lot of
cattle which had the mixed food were in good condition, and
equally well grown as others, though they had consumed in five
months two tons less of roots apiece. The reporter does not
advise the mincing process to be commenced when cattle are very
forward in condition, as any change of food requires a certain
time to accustom the animals to it, and in the meantime fat
cattle are apt to fall off in condition. It ought to be begun
when they are young and lean.
Mr. Duckham, of Baysham Court, Ross, Herefordshire, says:--
The advantages of pulping roots for cattle are--1st, Economy
of food; for the roots being pulped and mixed with the chaff,
either from threshing or cut hay or straw, the whole is consumed
without waste, the animals not being able to separate the chaff
from the pulped roots, as is the case when the roots are merely
sliced by the common cutter, neither do they waste the fodder as
when given without being cut.
2. The use of ordinary hay or straw. After being mixed with the
pulp for about twelve hours, fermentation commences, and this
soon renders the most mouldy hay palatable, and animals eat with
avidity that which they would otherwise reject. This fermentation
softens the straw, makes it more palatable, and puts it in a state
to assimilate more readily with the other food. In this respect
I think the pulper of great value, particularly upon corn farms
where large crops of straw are grown, and where there is a limited
acreage of pasture, as by its use the pastures may be grazed, the
expensive process of haymaking reduced, and, consequently, an
increased number of cattle kept. I keep one-third more, giving
the young stock a small quantity of oil-cake, which I mix with
the chaff, &c.
3. Choking is utterly impossible, and I have only had one case of
hoove in three years, and that occurred when the mixture had not
fermented.
4. There is an advantage in mixing the meal with the chaff and
pulped roots for fattening animals, as thereby they cannot separate
it, and the moisture from the fermentation softens the meal and
ensures its thorough digestion, whereas, when given in a dry state
without any mixture, frequently a great portion passes away in the
manure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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