WHEAT FOR STOCK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20958, 22 August 1931, Page 19

WHEAT FOR STOCK.

PRICE AND VALUE. • Brought about by low rates ruling on the markets, the question of the value of*wheat as feed for live stock is occupying the minds of farmers in various parts of the world. One American publication, dealing with this subject, says wherever wheat is available there is no justification for selling it and buying maize, especially as wheat fed to animals in some instances will nearly double the market price ol the wheat. • Another journal says the present conditions, with a surplus of wheat and a shortage of corn and other feed crops, afford an opportunity to realise better returns from wheat by feeding it to farm animals than by selling it on the market. The Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station says:—" Wheat is worth more as feed for live stock than it is bringing ob the market. When maize, is equal in price or higher than wheat it will pay to feed wheat to I've stock." Oklahoma Experiment Station reports chat when fed moist grinding increases the value of wheat 15 per cent., as against seven per cent, when ground and fed dry. (Tic Colorado. Station recommends that wheat be coarsely ground or rolled, and also suggests supplementing the wheat with good protein foods. North Dakota Station finds that wheat can he used to advantage as a substitute for any farm-grown grain or for wheat bran in the dairy cow's ration. South Dakota Station considers wheat and maize almost identical in food value. « Oregon Station also considers ground barley, cracked wheat and sliellea corn equal in feeding value for practical purposes. .Missouri Station found from experiments that ground wheat was superior to ground maize, and has issued a circular recommending feeding rations, including wheat. Even in the wheat State of Kansas the experiment, station has published a circular endorsing wheat for hogs and sheep, fn I Montana, another wheat State, the station found wheat 10 per cent, more efficient than whole barley in producing gains' in live stock. The verdict in favour of using lowprice wheat as stock feed is practically unamirnous, as is also the conclusion that cracking it or grinding it coarsely before feeding increased the feeding value far above the expense of grinding.