SALTED HAY

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6804, 7 January 1929, Page 10

SALTED HAY

A French Invention NEW WINTER FODDER The dairv farmer is busy conserving fodder for the winter and hay and cn silage making arc again in fu swm says the Auckland “bta-v” steady development of grass land farm ing has led to greatly increased reliance on hay and ensilage and lessened interests in roots, the farmer naturally looking to decrease his work, now tha labour costs represent such a considerable outgoing on the majority of farms. With labour saving devices now on the market, tho haymaking is not nearly suck, a tedious business as it was a tew years ago, always provided the weather is favourable. So far farmers have regarded themselves as being completely in the hands of the weather at haymaking time, and one of tho advantages claimed for ensilage has always been that it could be made even when the weather was not entirely favourable. This undoubtedly accounts for its growing popularity in Taranaki, where showery weather is so often experienced during haymaking. The writer was recently reading of some French experiments which bid fair to revolutionise the haymaking process, and which will make it possible to mako hay in weather much worse than wo can now. Broadly speaking this process consists in the salting oT the hay according to its water content, up to about 2 per cent. Many farmers already use salt in their haymaking, this idea having been handed down for generations. Salt always increases the palutability of hay and its use is to bo definitely recommended. According to the French experiments, however, it can bo made to perform a much more important tion in allowing hay to be made from half-dried grass and in preserving this grass in a state nearer to its original feeding value than ordinary bay. In this new process tho grass is cut iu the ordinary way, left on tho ground until about three-quarters dry, and then stacked,'salt being added during tho stacking process to about 2 per cent. If rainy weather is experienced it is claimed that by increasing the quantities of salt the hay may still be saved, it being possible under this new method to save half-dried grass successfully. This new form of hay would almost require a special name, for in composition it must closely approximate ensilage, although, of course, it has the advantage that no special form of stack or expensive apparatus is needed for its manufacture. It might, indeed, be termed hay-ensilage, for it has some of the properties of both. After being made the hay ferments slightly, the salt, dissolves,, and the stack heats slightly, becoming normal after a few days. Experiments conducted in France with this new form of hay showed that it was more nutritious than either hay or ensilage, and although its use has not yet been widely adopted there, it is consider that cacti year will seC an increase. Recent work iu pasture research has shown that tho very much dried form of grass is loss nutritious than young grass, and. consequently if wo can save our hay in approximately the form of young grass, wc will effect a considerable saving, and be able to feed more economically. The new method with its elimination of turning, and its consequent, reduction in the time of haymaking, possesses the additional advantage of saving of labour, a point which must surely appeal when it is remembered that haymaking comes at the buSiest period of tho year when the dairy herd is at its maximum production, and when all classes of farm work are claiming the attention of the farmer.

This now method has claimed the attention of the French agricultural exports, and at the recent World’s Daily Congress, the Director of Agricultural Services spoke in the highest terms of this new method of haymaking, and gave it as his opinion that in future it would become universal. The nutritive value of the green grass is almost wholly preserved in the form of hay, the work of haymaking is reduced, and the operation can be performed in .showery weather. (Surely that is sufficient to indicate the scope which lies ahead of this now scheme. It cannot be expected that farmers in New Zealand will rush to change their present methods —nor is that desirable—but the unstinted praise bestowed upon it by leaders of agricultural thought in France should be sufficient to induce our Agricultural Department to try out the method, and give farmers a leal as to its value. p Tho farmer with, a little time at liis disposal could well afford to experiment a little for himself, as it is only by trying out these new ideas under New Zealand conditions that we will discover new ways of decreasing our cost of production, and increasing our returns per acre. For very many years it was thought that there was some special virtue in well dried had, but today wc know that the drier and browner the hay, the less nutritious it is likely to be. Short, .young grass is the best for stock, and the hay which mc.fit nearly approximates to this condition is the best also. If it is possible with less labour and at less cost to make a better quality hay, then we > want to see the practice become general throughout New Zealand. Fortunately our fanners are always ready to make use of new knowledge, and that being so it may be expected that with-

in tho next few seasons the practicability or otherwise of this new method of haymaking will have been thoroughly tested.