COW PROBLEMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18322, 12 August 1921, Page 6

COW PROBLEMS

THE CONCENTRATES AGE METHODS IN AMERICA.

Some interesting evidence was given before the Parliamentary Committee of Agriculture in New .South Wales by Mr 1.. MacLean Wilson, of Messrs Meggitts, Limited, on the feeding of live stock. Mr Wilson was formerly associated with the Cornell University in an advisory capacity, and he stated that ho had had 18 years’ experience on various commissions in America, dealing with grain feeding and farmers' co-operative associations. Mr Wilson said that he considered a cow should be treated with the same care and consideration as the most intricate machine, consequently a dairy farmer should be careful how, when, and why he fed his cows. He believed in feeding a cow in proportion to her milk yield. From his experience, the Australian farmers seemed to bo in the position of American farmers of 20 years ago—they fed their cows "by guess and by gosh.”—(Laughter.) That meant bv hit or miss.—(More laughter). A farmer should feed his cows intelligently, and two things which should be on every farm were a pair of scales and a Babcock tester. VALUE OF CONCENTRATES. Extensive use was made ot concentrates in America. These were manufactured from a variety of raw materials and the by-pro-ducts obtained from some commercial commodity. Years ago, bran ami brewers’ grains, he said, used to be dumped into the Mississippi in America. Then they became such a nuisance that they were burned. Eventually the people woke up to the fact that they were destroying valuable concentrates, which could be fed to animals. Etch new year concentrates were being made from by-products which were thrown away previously. It was only after years of experiment in Denmark and America that the problem of the nutritive ratios of dairy feed had been worked out. The value of any dairy food was not only based on how much and what kind of food was best, but the production in the milk pail. In the United States, the manufacture of concentrates had become one of the greatest industries of the country. The laws of the 48 States, while conflicting, were sufficiently stringent to force the dishonest njanufacturer of cattle food out of the business. The American laws aimed at the elimination of food which would bo detrimental, and protected the farmer absolutely. He did not know of any laws for the business men. The pure food laws in America to protect cows were more rigid than those for human beings. Mr Wilson considered the Pennsylvanian

food laws to be the best, and he advised the committee to read them and, perhaps, adapt them to Australian requirements. The great majority of American, dairymen, he said, fed calves on a specially-pre-pared food, for the reason that it was more economical, and they were able to sell the milk, which was considered too valuable for feeding calves. The concentrates were not costly, comparatively speaking, and, although Australia was developed sufficiently, the business of concentrates manufacture was only in its infancy. The American farmer was advised to sell his grain and to return with a load of concentrates, rather than use the grain food on his farm. A cow did not possess sufficient capacity to eat raw material, so that when one desired to increase the production of milk by 100 per cent, it could best be done by the use cf concentrates. One per cent, would be the greatest proportion of cows depastured on the natural grasses in America. CONSERVATIVE AND SUSPICIOUS.

Of course, wherever one met him, the farmer was not only conservative, but the most suspicious individual ever born. He had talked to thousands of farmers, and he was a member of one of the most secret organisations, where one hid to give sb many knocks to get in. or to peen through the keyhole.—(Laughter.) When the American farmer wanted to buy (anything, said witness, he expected to get it for nothing, and when selling anything he wanted twice what it was worth.—(Laughter.) The education of the American farmer had been achieved by a gigantic publicity campaign carried out through the children in the country schools. The pupils, even if they absorbed only one point, took it home to their parents. In some cases a 12-year-old boy knew more than his father, and in that way the latter was educated. This was carried farther by awarding prizes of full-blooded stock for the beet judging at the local fairs by boys. He had seen as many as 2000 boys judging at a district show. If the farmers’ children in this country could be educated in this fadhion, and the work put on c. practical, intelligent basis,- they would not flock to the cities. The fact was that they were so used to the old-fashioned methods and ideas of their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grand-fathers that they had become disgusted. The first time he had ever seen milk delivered other than in a bottle was in Sydney. He could get pasteurised certified pure milk delivered in America for IS cents, or 1 cent less than the present price in Sydney, where the milk was delivered, from an open can by the milkmhn. This method made it easy for germs to get into milk.

The fundamental principles now employed by the American butter farmer had been adopted from Denmark. Prominent anions: the methods was the use of concentrated fodder. The Danes from 1884 to 1890 had doubled tJieir butter-fat production. Since the war, however, owing to. the difficulty of obtaining concentrates, their production had gone back immensely.