TREATMENT OF GRASS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18056, 5 April 1933, Page 2

TREATMENT OF GRASS

WINTER CATTLE FOOD NEW DRYING PROCESS “REVOLUTION IN FARMING” LONDON, Feb. 21. A special representative of the Sunday Times tells of some interesting research work that is in progress at the Imperial Chemical Industries Experimental Station in Berkshire, under Dr. S. J. Watson, who has been seeding to preserve in the grass, after it has been cut, the original quantity ot protein. Forty cows are being experimented upon, and the condition of these cattle, together with the milk they yield and the butter produced from it, makes it only too clear already that the picturesque hayrick will ultimately disappear. One reads: “Grass as grass is a valuable food, containing 20 to 30 percent. of crude protein. Grass allowed to wilt into hay is a food containing only 11 to 12 per cent, of crude protein. It is claimed that by employing a special sort of machine to dry the grass as soon as it has been mowed, Dr. Watson lias succeeded m reducing tliis loss. “All through last summer this machine was busy swallowing grass and blowiug hot air over it in preparation for the feeding experiments now going on. Forty tons ,of grass were thus treated. The tests have yielded results that should, in due course, lead to a revolution on every farm throughout the country. “ANTI-FLU” BUTTER.

“It has been found that the dried grass is equally as good as most concentrates—averaging, like bean meal, 17 to IS per cent, protein —and three times as good as hay. ■ The buttei product of cows fed on it contains vitamin A in a far more generous pieportion than the butter of cows fed on bay. . . , A . 11 Vitamin A -is tlic anti-infcctivc vitamin, yielding protection_ against chills, influenza, etc., and dried grass butter might, therefore, well be called ‘anti-flu’ butter. It is rich, and yellow in color, contrasting vividly with the pale product of hay. Also, it has a superior flavor to bay butter. ‘ ‘ The drying plant is a Heath Robinson affair. Chemists put it together,- and not engineers. It consists merely of an oven and a band, along which the grass is carried. _ It is of an immense size and fbo chemists admit that an engineer could build a drier half the size to do twice the work -at half the cost. The grass; when it comes out, is bright green, and hardly distinguishable from living grass. It is slightly brittle and is easily baled and stored.” EXPERIMENTS WITH ENSILAGE. Mr. B. A. Fixsen, secretary and demonstrator, said future developments would prabably include farmers owning their own drying plants; drying factories in agricultural areas; and circus driers, private or companyowned, travelling from farm to farm. The farmer will save all the money he now spends on imported foods for his stock. In short, he will be a step nearer to being entirely self-support-ing. His cattle will enjoy in the winter food of the same quality as that which they enjoy in summer. They will be perpetually “in clover.” Experiments are also being carried out in ensilage, since ensilage, though not comparable with dried grass, is superior to ordinary hay in protein value. Among the methods of ensilaging under trial is one adopted from Finland, producing what is known as “A.I.V. ” fodder, named after the inventor of the system, Dr. A. I. Virtanen. It entails the stacking of grass in huge containers, and of “killing” it with an acid preparation.

Theoretically, the method should result in the grass retaining all its protein contents, but the experts"arc non - committal. ‘ ‘ Our experiments show,” they say, “that wo cannot make a definite pronouncement yet. Moreover, there are many problems connected with this method of ensilaging still to be solved.”