FARM AND STATION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 178, 13 July 1927, Page 9

FARM AND STATION

BALANCING THE RATION

Economy In Winter Feeding With Roots, Barley, Oats and Hay

By

“Sundowner"

(Written for the Tribune. All Kights Reserved.)

Throughout New Zealand a verv large number of farm animals, more particularly sheep are wintered on artificial feed, which may take the form of turnips, mangels, oats, barley. rye, peas, vetches, hay. or a combination of two or more of these To get the maximum value from any of these fodders, it is well for the practical farmer to have some knowledge of the food requirements of his charges, and in allotting them their diet, and so arrange it that the animal will have what is common I v termed a balanced ration. MORE RESULT FOR LESS MONEY. We do not propose to enter into a technical discussion of the individual plants’ contents of water, ash. albuminoids. carbo-hydrates and fat. and will onlv touch on them when absolutely essential. The object of •:hp articles is to illustrate for the everyday farmer the absolute necessity of providing a fodder, or combination of fodders, the least amount of which will supply all the animal’s requirements. It will be evident to all that such a fodder will produce meat. wool, fat or energy at a less cost than an unbalanced ration. HOW FODDER IS USED. To understand fodder values. «ne must realise that fodder is used bv the animals first as fuel to keep up the bodily heat, without • which the vital processes cannot go on ; second to repair the wastes of the various tissues organs and fluids of tn© body; third, to form new tissues or organs (especially in young animals'.: fourth, to produce voting; and ffth to lay up reserve stores in the form of fat or otherwise.

Generally, it may be accepted that if the supply of fooa rs insufficient, it is used first of all for the first four purposes in the order named and for perfect health sufficient must be available to supply these. Productive feeding must supply more than this, for it is onlv the surplus over maintenance rations which returns the farmer profit in milk. wool, or fattened animals. WASTED NORISHMENT. By this it must not be assumed that the animal can make use of aM the fodder it can eat. Much is absolutely undigested and passes in that state from the animal in its excrement. This superabundance is absolute waste except in its value as manure, and this waste is increased where an animal is given unbalanced ration. The reason for this is as follows. The fodder supplied may have abundance of water and carbo-hydrates, but at the same time he wanting in proteids (or albuminoids). Such n state of affairs means that the animal would eat an excessive amount of fodder in order to try and supply the proteid requirements, and in so doing would have an oversupply of carbo-hydrates. The system is incapable of making use of this oversupply of carbo-hydrates and it must consequently be expelled as waste. Now. if the animal’s requirements were studied, and the various food constituents supplied in the proportion m which the animal could use them, it would require to eat much less bulk of food to produce the same gain in condition. This enable a greater number of stock to bp fattened or carried on the same amount of feed. CONCENTRATED FOODS. Many artificial or concentrated foods are manufactured, which contain approximately what the animal requires, and require onlv the addition of hulk (fibre and other carbohydrates) usually supplied as hav. and water, to supply the animal’s requirements. Such manufactured foods are usually too expensive for general use in colonial farming, and the grazier and fattener must relv almost solely op what he can produce or grow on the farm

THE VALUE OF PASTURE. A closely-cropped pasture containing a fair admixture of clovers and English grasses provides the nearest approach to a perfect ration, but the value of this varies very considerably throughout the year. Ln spring and early summer it is almost perfect, the proteins and moisture, summer advances, the proportion of carbo-hydrates exceeds that of oroteids. and during winter this proportion considerably increases. Some single grasses, such as lucerne and the clover faniilv generally, form an almost balanced food, but as these are not available during winter (and would not contain the constituents in the same proportion were they available) the farmer must fall back on fodders which will grow or will at least be in a green state at that time HOOTS ON GREEN FEED. The most popular of these fodders in New Zealand are roots and green crops such as barley oats. etc. and it remains for the farmer to learn rhe approximate constituents of these to enable him to so blend them or add proteids in the form of concentrated food or carbo-hydrates in the form of hav that the sheep or other animals will be able to make use of the whole nutritive value in the fodder. It must not lie lost sight of that no animal can keep in health on concentrated food alone; it must have bulk in order that the digestive

organs may be sufficiently distended to induce the flow of gastric juices, it must also contain a sufficient amount of water to make it palatable and provide a medium for the diffusion of the intestinal juices whicn prevent constipation. HOW TO FEED. It will be seen from this that hav on the one hand contains, when fed alone, an excess of carbo-hydrates over proteins, and at the same time is deficient in water, while in roots the proportion of proteids is greater and the water content abundant while the bulk is missing. For the greatest economy in feeding the two should be fed to the stock simultaneously in the proportion that the sheen will eat reacfilv. To do this the sheen or cattle must be fed on a break of the roots for a part of the day onlv. and then turned into a paddock where they have access to hav (or winter pasture if abundant) onlv. Too much water in the fodder, as with green oats and barlev has a very loosening effect on the bowels aad a debilitating effect on the whole... system ; hence alternate feeding on green and drv food, as with roots and hav. should bq employed to prevent this and reduce the loss of good value which takes place when an animal scours. ADD SALT TO HAY. As salt is deficient in most of our pastures, and this aids both in digestion and in making the fodder more palatable, it should be added liberally to the haystack when building If this is dqne. the animals will soon show as much appetite for the drv hay as they do for the green crop. »

SELECT AND BREED “GOOD DOERS.’’

Even with the best-balanced rations an average animal can onlv digest and use ironi one-half to twothirds of the nutritive value of the fodder, but this, ability varies with different animals and different breeds: hence we hear of animals which are “good doers” and breeds which are “hardy” or ‘‘early maturing.” This natural ability to assimilate a greater proportion of food nutrients can be developed in our animals by selection, and is trails* fnissible to their offspring; hence breeds of animals can be evolved which will fatten where others would starve.

It must be remembered that ail animals, and even animals of the same kind in a different condition, do not thrive on the same ration. Thus animals that are growing rapidly and that are bearing young require a more nitrogenous 'food than animals that are working or fattening or living without gain or loss of weight. The former are said tn require a “narrow” ration, the latter a “wide.” PROTEIDS AND CARBOHYDRATES. As a rule the difficulty is to supdlv a sufficiency of proteins (containing nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and phosphorus), and the most important of all is nitrogen, without which organic activities can not be maintained. Where the proportion of protein is in excess it may be used by the animal as a source of heat, instead of the cheaper starch or sugar, and shis means costly waste of valuable nourishment, but in practice it is seldom found that proteins are over-supplied unless thev are given liberally in a concentrated form. The proportional contents of »roteids (albuminoids' carbo-hydrates (sugars, starch, gum and vegetable fibre), fats. ash. etc., of almost all known forage plants and roots, has been ascertained both when in n green and in a drv state, and tabulated by scientists for the use of farmers, and for profitable fanning these should be carefully studied, and the winter fodder supplied in such proportions as will fill each class of animal’s requirements without undue waste.

RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS. As an instance of the differing value of rations fed to lambs. I will add the result of some experiments which were conducted in England some years ago to ascertain the most economical method of fattening. On the same dav three lots ol eight lambs, each as similar as possible. were selected from one flock and weighed. The first pen of eight lambs was put on the bare land where the swedes had grown, and were led as much as they would consume. which proved to be on an average 23?,1b of swedes per day. At the cud of fifteen weeks thev had gained 25|lb each. The second lot were placed in a grass paddock and similarly were fed all the swedes they wanted, which amounted to 191 b per day. and weighed on the same day as the first lot. their average gain was 2611 b each. The third lot. besides being given the run of a similar grass naddock to lot 2. were given half a pound of mixed oilcake and peas each per dav. and consimed 20.)1b of turnips per dav. Their average gain at the end of the term was 33) lb each. CONCLUSIONS I he p.'ints to be noted are that when the lambs were allowed a ra <: .>u of grass to bulk the feed up. rhe consumption of turnips was 4£lb less

per dav while the gain at the uid of the period was l|lb more.* The third experiment proved that the lambs, obtaining their proteins m concentrated form bulked up their food more with the tasty turnips m preference to grass, but even so. with 3|lb less turnips per day (against which, of course, must ue set the cost of half a pound of oilcake and peas), they gained eight pounds per head over Lot 1* and »ix and three-quarter pounds overw Lot

Presumably Lot 3 ate less grass than Lot 2. though this was not recorded. and the test would have been of more value had the added fodder been given in the form of hay. but with the figures before us it is easy to estimate the value of the added proteids given in concentrated form.