FORAGE CROPS.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 781, 3 November 1922, Page 6

FORAGE CROPS.

VALUE OF OATS A 3 A CONCENTRATE. The oat is a most extensively grown cereal : n this country, higher in crude proten than corn and higher in fat than wheat and almost equal to corn in this respect. Hull-less varieties are generally considered better feed for pigs and poultry but for other classes of stock the varieties which have a thin huh are preferred 1 . Oats is one of the safest all-round feds we have. It makes the best concentrate feed Soy the horse owing to its bulky character. It is well suited also for the dairy cow, for sheep, lor growing pigs, in mixtures for fattening cattle and particularly for the growth of all young animals. For young calves it is possibly cf most value fed whole up until the calf is seven or eight months of age. Until he learns to eat, however, the calf can be fed on finely ground oats with the hulls sifted; out. For young pigs oats may be finely ground 1 and for sheep fed whole or crushed. in the ration for the dairy cow, oatmeal is sometimes too nigh in price, but otherwise is very satisfactory as a part of the ration. Crushed oats or oatmeal make the best feed to start the young foal. This grain is the most keenly relished by horses of any concentrate. Horses at hard work should have their oats crushed and may be given from 10 to 18 lbs a day. Although it is said that the oat is too bulky to be of much value in fattening pigs, and that its use is costiy, up to one-third or even one-half of the concentrate ration may be composed finelyground 1 oats. Oats is essentially a growth promoting feed and one that contains considerable mineral matters which strengthens bone. It is a soft feed and one tending rat-, ion to prevent the evil effects of too heavy feeds, such as barely or corn. •DNIMIIM CIHYH JO 3S-IVD The inside of a cow’s teat is open like a glove finger, and when r.ov distended with milk its walls come together. Where the walls come close to form the tip of the teat there an opening not much exceeding the thickness of the skin forming an entrance to the cavity of the teat. There is no large, strong sphincter muscle like a drawstring keeping this opening closed, neither is there a sphLncter of that sort at the top of t,he teat where it connects with the milk sinus or reservoir or cistern, nor are there true sphincter muscles in the various lactiferous ducts which discharge into the cistern. In some cows the openings of the teats are abnormably small and such cows are hard to milk. In others, the teats are flabby and weak in musculuar tissues and milking then is easy or milk flows out Detween milkings. In most instances,'however, hard milking is abnormal and has resulted from infection, injury or growths wj-thin the opening of teat or upon the lining membrane of t,he teat cavity* near the orifice, part way up or close to the udder. Clogging the Opening. In some cases catarrhal discharge solidifies in the teat, opening after the ‘‘drying off” process qr an attack of garget, and this substance has to be removed to make milking possible. It is not uncommon also to meet with a case where there is no orifice present at calving time and the attending surgeon, has then to make an artificial orifice.

Warty growths are the commonest cause of partial closure (atresia) of the teat opening, or interference with milk flow. They may be removed if in the* orifice or close to it, for the veterinarian having special instruments for such work; but it rarely is safe or advisable to attempyt by ordinary methods, removal of growths that are high up in the teat or which hang into the teat cavity from] the milk cistern. The .right way to remedy such con_ ditions is to cut through the teat wall when the cow is dry and thai is a formidable operation only to be attempted by the trained! surgeon. Sterßzed dilators o,r expanders, properly used, often make a hard milker more easily milked, when the cause is a stricture at the tip of the teat*, and teat plugs, or even a- clean, fresh clove, may set*ve fairly well jfor the same purpose, Hoding up the Milk.

(The cow cannot wilfully or purposely “hold up her milk” for the muscles of the teat wail and udder are not under control of the will, nor is the “letting down” of milk under control of the cow. It is operated by the sympathetic nerve system, which is* how'ever, intimately associated with the cerebro-spinal nerve system which operates the voluntary or motor nerves. The involuntary nerves and the muscles they supply may, however, bej instantly affected by chill or shock and those influences often interfere with , or impede milk secretion. Gentleness ness “shocks the nerves ' ; and the reflex influence impairs milk secretion, Muscle may also be. come weakened so that leaking of milk occurs, or that may be due to any injury of the muscular tissues about the teat opening.