FEEDING OF CATTLE

Taranaki Daily News, 3 December 1938, Page 24 (Supplement)

FEEDING OF CATTLE

NEEDS IN OTHER LANDS DOMINION FORTUNATE The 3,500,000 dairy cows and 4,350,000 cattle in Gre'at Britain- are stall fed for five to six months of the year; 6,574,000 acres, or 33 per cent. of its grasslands are cut for hay or silage, and these produce approximately 7,280,000 tons at a cost , of approximately £18,500,000 sterling, comments Mr. E. Bruce Levy, Director of the Grasslands Division, in an article on his recent tour. In addition, some 5,344,000 acres of grain, 1,126,000 acres of root and fodder crops are grown, the latter mainly for stock feed, and some 350,000 acres of sugar beet, of which much residue goes for stock feed. In addition, £31,000,000 worth of feeding stuffs are imported each year for live stock of all descriptions' in Great Britain. Then in addition to the 7,850,000 cattle and dairy cows are 24,500,000 sheep, 4,000,000 pigs, 918,000 horses, and some 70,000,000 head of poultry. Denmark stalls for approximately six months of the year, and for some months over and above this for riight as Well. Over 1,000,000 acres or .46 per cent. of its grasslands are cut for hay or silage; 1,000,000 acres are in roots, and some 1,400,000 (approximately £10,000,000 worth) of imported grain and oilbearing concentrates are used. In addition some 65 per cent. of its homegrown cereals amounting to 2,028,600 tons are utilised as winter stock feed. Denmark feeds some 3,185,000 cattle, including 1,800,000 dairy cows, 179,000 sheep. 4,500,000 pigs and 520,000 horses In Germany stock are stall fed for approximately 200 days of the year; in Sweden stall feeding is necessary for 235 days of the year, and supplementary feeding is much as 'for Denmark. Holland is -more equitable as regards climate, and her system of farming inclines more to the New Zealand practice of adapting cow demand according to seasonal growth. Holland stall feeds for 170 to 180 days per year, and the cows are fed principally on hay and ensilage harvested on the farm, plus approximately 10001b of inbrought concentrates per cow, i.e., approximately £3 10s per cow for the period of stall feeding. From £6 to £10 per head in most European countries for the. period of stall feeding. In one dairy farm in England, for example, running 150 head of cattle, including 90 dairy cows and 60 heifers and calves, the cost of concentrate feeding for the year was £1547. In Eastem Cana^a and the Northern part of U.S.A. stall feeding extends over approximately seven months of the year. In Eastern Canada the 8,000,000 grazing animals are thus fed, and approximately £7,000,000 worth of concentrates are purchased outside this area annually. In addition, some 8,300,000 acres, or 35 per cent. of the grasslands, are cut for hay, and some 370,000 acres are in corn for silage. In contrast to the foregoing, New Zealand has no period of stall feeding, has little or no expenditure in inbrought concentrates, and from its 20,000,000 acres of grasslands only 536,000 acres or,3.6 per cent. of hay or silage, are harvested, and this together ,with 700,000 acres of roots and fodder crops is the total supplementary feeds used. The remainder is secured from grasslands, where the animal itself does its own collecting. It may be said the main costs of feed production in New Zealand are largely represented in the annual manurial topdressing bill. New . Zealand uses approximately 500,000 tons of manufactured fertilisers at a cost of approximately £2,000,000. Denmark uses some 310,000 tons of phosphate; 95,000 tons of potash, and 196,000 tons of nitrogenous fertilisers costing approximately £2,760,000. The intensively-grazed areas of Holland, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland particularly use high applications of manurial topdressing apart altogether from the dung and urine from stock, the making and conservatiton of which is a practice almost entirely unknown in New Zealand. A typical topdressing per annum on the rotationally grazed areas of Sweden is 2cwt superphosphate, lcwt 30 per cent. potash salts, and licwt sulphur containing some 15 per cent. nitrogen. Lime, 1J tons per acre, is given every seven years, and stable manure, 8 tons per acre, every five years. In Germany the rotationally grazed pastures reoeive some 2cwt to 4cwt super or slag, 2cwt 30 per cent. potash salts, and 2cwt to 4cwt of nitrogenous manure.