BABY BEEF

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 July 1927, Page 2

BABY BEEF

INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS. At the request of Mr. Angus Campbell and other South African farmers who toured tjnis country in 1925, says the new English paper Farming, the Sussex Baby Beef Club carried out a most interesting experiment in feeding. The idea was to see how a ration of concentrates composed of halfcrushed maize and half-crushed oats suited a young baby beef animal. The beast selected was a Sussex heifer calved on April G, 1925, the heifer being six months old when the experiment started. During the whole time that the experiment lasted the heifer was kept in a loose box, and in twelve months she received 9641 b. crushed maize, 16031 b. of crushed oats, 1045 lb. of hay, 11751 b. of loots, 601 b. of linseed cake and 23371 b. of green food. For the first two months she received lib. of linseed cake per day until she became accustomed to the maize, and after that time it was found that she took to the maize, but that it proved rather too heating, with the result that the amount of maize fed was decreased and the ration of oats increased. When this was done the animal made distinct progress and made up in the end into a blocky, beef type of bullock. Weighed on September 1, 1925, when the experiment started, she weighed 2561 b: on August 2G, 1926, she tipped the scales at 886 lb. showing a total gain of no less than 6301 b. or an average daily gain of 1.821 b., and this weight was put on at a cost of 5.G2d. per lb. From this experiment it would appear as if a “half-and-half” ration is not calculated to suit young cattle so well as one in which oats predominate. In the Sussex Baby Beef Club’s competition 15 calves were entered and it was found that the average daily gain in weight for all calves was 1.711 b., and the average cost per lb. gained in live weight was 4.57 d for the year. The highest gain per day was 2.1011 b. which was made by a steer, and this was put on at the average cost per lb. of 4.70 d. Such trials are all for the good of farmers in general and especially those who specialise in early maturity and weight-for-age in their beef production.