USE OF CARBOHYDRATES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23002, 1 April 1938, Page 15

USE OF CARBOHYDRATES

STOCK'S SEASONAL NEED Land sown to green crops in autumn should be deeply worked but not broken down too line, nor rolled. The air must be able to get through the soil treely to keep the bacterial life active, and there must be reasonable drainage away from the surface to a depth below the plant roots if winter growth is to continue. It is ac this time of the year when Nature provides a preponderance of carbohydates—the fat-forming foodsover proteins—the energy foods to build up reserves of condition in anrnals to carry them through the winter. These carbohydrates are found largely in grass seeds, grains and so on, but under our methods of close grazing, few grass plants have a chance to seed, and so supply this type of food. Where it is available, or can be procured. a little crushed maize, or inaeed any grain meal with a high oil and carbohydrate content —such as linseed — will do wonders m carrying both dairy cattle and breeding ewes through the winter in good, healthy condition. If the. cows are fed a little in their bails at each milking a wonderful improvement in their condition will be noticed. It is better to give this feed now, so as to build up reserves of heat-produc-ing condition, than to wait until the cows have lost condition later in the winter and must be built up again. The cost of feeding now will be repaid many times over in the extra milk at early calving. The same applies to breeding ewes which are to lamb early. The lambs will be bigger, stronger and fatter when born if the ewes are fed a supplement in autumn rather than in winter, and the ewes will have a bigger flush of milk to carry the lambs on in rapid growth and fattening.