CONCENTRATED FODDER

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6919, 27 May 1929, Page 10

CONCENTRATED FODDER

Grass Made Into Cakes EXPERIMENTS IN ENGLAND The possibilities ef conserving fur winter .feeding some of the young leut y pasturage vvinch grows so prolifically under the infiuenee of fertilisers, is engaging tli o cver-increnisng addition from English agricultural experts. At Home, us in .New Zealand, now that the use of manures is more generally increasing pasture growth in tiic growing season, the problem is how best, to utilise tlie surplus. One method is the making of concentrated fodders from some of the surplus spring and slimmer growth.

Dr. If. E. ’Woodman, of the School of Agriculture, Cambridge, England, recently delivered a lecture on the con-

servation of voting grass for winter feeding as a protein concentrate. The lecturer remarked that young, leafy grass was extremely rich in protein. Compared with hay, it contained a high percentage of oil and mineral constituents, and a low percentage of crude libre. The rude composition of a feeding stuff of course, was not. always a icJiablc index of the feeding value. There must be known noL only ils chemical composition, but also ils digestibility. During the past J'uitr or five years they Jiml carried out almost continuously at Cambridge experiments to determine the digestibility of young leafy pasturage, and remarkable result's have been obtained. High Feeding Value. The digestibility of such grass compared favourably with that of linseed cake; it was superior lo that of a concentrate, like palm kernel cake, and very much superior to that of the .very best qualify of meadow hay. Even the fibrous constituent, which in bay was often woody and of low digestibility, was, in young pasturage herbage digested to an extent equal to that of the carbohydrate fraction. It had been proved that lib. of digestible fibre was equal to lib. of starch to the ruminant animal. They must not, therefore, look on fibre in young pasture as a useless ingredient, but as equal to starch for fattening the animal.

The first broad generalisation he would like lo make was that pasture grass, in its early stages of growth, possessed a much higher feeding value than had hitherto been thought. Its dry mailer possessed the character of a protein concentrate of high digestibility and nutritive value. Moreover, this pasture concentrate possessed a feature lacking in many of the usual farm concentrates, in thut it was capable of satisfying the animal's requirements for vitamins, and also for bone and milk-forming minerals, such as lime and phosphate. It might be asserted with reason that the cheapest and possibly the best concentrate was to be found growing within easy reach of the homestead. Young, leafy pasturage was essentially a feeding stuff designed for production rather than lor maintenance purposes. Grass Qualities Preserved. L’r. Woodman went on to give facts from •which lie drew' the conclusion that the botanical composition of a pasture was of secondary importance, and that management, ensuring not only sufficient, stocking, but also adequate manuring to produce density of herbage and vigour of growth, was the primary factor, determining the nutritive .value of pastures. It was, however, desirable that a pasture should contain a number of different species of grass of different seasons of luxuriance, so as to ensure a continuous succession of vigorous growths from early spring lo kilo autumn. The lecturer showed specimen grass cakes measuring roughly (jin.,by sin. by lin., Die density of which, lie said, was such thut -ft) cubic feet weighed one ton. Oakes had been made with a density of 25 cubic feet to the ton. The cakes retained the green colour of fresh grass, possessed a fragrant and appetising odour, and adieu placed in water swelled up ami disintegrated. The resultant material was scarcely distinguishable from new-mown pasture glass in respect of smell and appearance. The cakes, both in the dry and soaked condition, were eagerly consumed by all kinds of farm slock. Experiments in the feeding of: cattle with the cakes showed their value as a fodder for dairy cows. Special Value in England.

Enumerating tin; advantages of this conservation of pasture grass, Dr. Woodmaj said flic great obstacle to t.lin attainment of nil all-round standard of intensive animal husbandry in England was a .shortage of concentrated feeding sl ull's. Jt, had been demonstrated recently that to attain an allround standard of high productivity such, for instance, a.s that of the 1000gaJlon cow, the gIJU-egg lien, the pig uhicli was ready for the factory at site months, and the steer which made

‘'baby beef” at. JS months, the national bill of fare of live stock must include concentrated foods and coarse fodders in equal proportions. The central problem of to-day was to bring about a material increase in the supply of concentrated foods, and the Cambridge pasture investigations pointed the wav to a simple solution. Conserved young grass contained the following excellent features:— (I) It was highly digestible and vary rich in digestive protein; (f! i it was rich in vitamins—an important matter in the feeding of farm animals during I lie non-grazing season; (3) it was rich in minerals like lime and phu.-plwle; and (!) it was rich in green pigments, and therefore its inclusion in the rations of dairv cows

would serve to keep up the colour ot winter milk,, and butter made there-

from, or poultry might be given access to it during the winter with the objects of improving the colour of Hie yolk of the egg and supplying valuable protein for egg-formation. Exchanging Concentrated Fodders. The advantage of this system of conserving young pastorago during wartime wits obvious; and it would also confer an incalculable boon on droughty parts of the Empire, like Australia, where, during bad seasons, the herbage shrivelled away to nothing and hundreds of thousands of sheep died off. The produce of good seasons could be saved against a droughty year. He visualised the day when the transport of grass cakes would take place between parts of the Empire, and when certain favoured Dominions would engage in the production of dried grass cakes for transport to the more needy parts of the Empire.

It would be necessary to have a suitable machine capable of cutting and collecting young grass, and also a. drying appliance which was able to dry down the herbage quickly and economically. He had fairly good grounds for supposing that the cutting and drying should nut cost more than about £2 per ton of dried grass cake, but he hoped by the end of the coming season to be in possession of data on this point.

On uii inn mi roll pasture id: modern!'quality the season's yield of dried grass calces should be in I lie neighbuui hood of two tons per tie re, bill there was no reason why firs I-el ass pastures under a system of fertilising should not produce 3 to 31 tons of dried grass cake per acre per season. In other words, the produce of such a pasture would lie worth, on the farm which grew it and on the basis of feeding value alone, from £3O to £35 per acre per season.