MOLASSES AS STOCK FOOD

Southland Times, Issue 23840, 10 June 1939, Page 18

MOLASSES AS STOCK FOOD

/ • ; VALUE DURING DRY SEASON The use of molasses as stock food received a good deal of attention in New South Wales and Queensland during 1 the recent dry spell. In Queeensland, particularly, it was , probably the most valuable and inext pensive concentrate of its kind avails able. s I The stock branch of the New South 1 Wales Department of Agriculture has - received from one of its inspectors estif mates of the cost of administering - molasses to sheep in drinking water, - states The Sydney Morning Herald. At t 45/- a drum of 44 gallons, the cost ’ a head of sheep was a penny a day. 1 The method adopted was as follows: s A man was placed continually at the 5 watering place. As small lots of sheep came to drink, a petrol tin was filled to t about a quarter of its capacity from ■ the drum of molasses. This was taken 1 to the trough and mixed with water to ■" about three parts full, and then poured • into the trough at various points, thus 1 ensuring a fairly even mixture with fresh material. The sheep relished the drink, and would return from a few yards away and take as much as poss sible. 1 The Queensland Department of Agrii culture believes that molasses could ■ be employed much more extensively ■ than at present. The sugar industry [ can supply large quantities annually, the . only drawback being the cost of freight ; involved in transporting it over long ; distances. There would be no diffi- [ culty in stock owners acquiring large consignments of molasses at £1 a ton '

at sugar mills, but some provision for containers would be necessary. Experiments have been conducted at the Mackay Sugar Experiment Station to determine the value of molasses as a concentrated feed for farm horses. All animals at that station receive the following daily ration while in work: Chaffed cane tops (chop chop) or panicum grass 541 b: molasses (heavy), 61b: linseed meal, 31b. The chaffed cane tops supplj' portion of the nutrients as well as the bulk; the molasses provides the extra sugar, and energy material; while linseed meal is an excellent source of protein. The farm horses have done particulary well on the ration, and, at the conclusion of the harvesting season, J were in remarkably good condition.