Grass Fattening Now Outdated

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30895, 30 October 1965, Page 9

Grass Fattening Now Outdated

PROFESSOR W. M. BEESON of Purdue University (Indiana), seen (left) with Professor I. L. Campbell (dean of the faculty of agriculture at Massey University) recently paid a short visit to New Zealand during which he gave one lecture—at Massey—on beef production.

Professor Beeson said that American fanners had given up grassland as a means of fattening stock.

“I do not think that we will ever go back to grass fattening,” he said. “We have found that it is possible to produce 20001 b of beef liveweight gain annually from an acre of corn silage, as against only 6001 b from an acre of the best grass.”

He added that these figures had been reached at Purdue University from grass which had been fed in feed-lots on the “zero-grazing” principle. If the grass were stock grazed, he would expect only 4001 b annual liveweight gain an acre.

On tower silos the professor said: “Looking at the position from the point of view of a feedlot operator, I do not think that their use could ever be justified on grass alone, and, even with grain feeding, American farm and research authorities are by no means agreed as to their economic value.

“It is from the convenience factor that tower silos have found favour, but it should be remembered that they are expensive structures and must be kept in use all the time to justify the capital outlay.”

A questioner asked the professor to outline the fat-meat ratio of American corn-fed beef compared with that of New Zealand grass-fattened cattle. “We like lean meat as well as you do,” he replied, “but we do not mind a small amount of fat. We look for marbling and a neat fat cover.”

The primary purpose of the professor’s visit to Massey was to lecture on the need for vitamin supplements and mineral additives in stock foods, a subject on which he is a world authority. He stated that in America, even on open range country where it would appear that conditions favoured the production of a pasture having no food deficiencies, stock had shown a remarkable response to treatment with vitamin A.

In the feed-lots, it had been found that the American farming practice of using large amounts of artificial nitrogenous fertiliser had, in some way, affected the quality of the ration, and although the foods gave a good analysis, the animal was unable to convert the nutrients into assimilable vitamins. Consequently, American feed-lot operators made wide use of vitamin and mineral additives. He considered that the same position could well apply in New Zealand. “I am sure that the grass you are feeding today is a very different grass from that used 20 years ago, and it is possible that investigation would show an equal profitability in the use of food additives in New Zealand farming,” he said.