THE VALUE OF STRAW FOR FEEDING STOCK.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1946, 20 May 1880, Page 4

THE VALUE OF STRAW FOR FEEDING STOCK.

In th<s newer portions of the West straw is burned to set it cut of the way. In the Ef.s'.drn atatce, where the soil has been cropped for a long time, tho organic matter is rooro or less exhausted, beoes straw is of vital importance in supplying the constituents of which it is composed to the earth from which th*y nco drawn. Rye straw is used largely in some parts of the c mntry for manufacturing paper. Lt»st winter it was worth 2iols. more b i'.ia on this a count in Saratoga County, K.Y-, than buy. Wherever this is the case it 43 advisabie to sell the straw and buy hsy, as Iho difference ia price and the difference in value for feeding makes a considerable margin ■ia favor of hay. Hay is the most natural and Valuable winter food for farm animals. No animal would eat straw as clean as hay, but would iecve the coarser parts of tho straw. Tf ; 3 would make a large percentage n>t «&l;sed cor food. Tf it was cut up fine more woulJ bo eaten, but this would add to the cost of tho food. The manure from hay is -•nore valuable in its quality, as it is a general rulo that the more nutritive principles there ere i.» food the richer is the animal waste from auch food. Thus oilcake makes the -«iche»t manure. Straw and oilcake may be considered" opposite examples in this respeot. en aniital to reoeive equal benefit when -tiyiasj on rye fitr'ir» us compared to hay it would have to eat, as straw is ordinarily harvested, more than three times the bulk of etrr.w. It is impossible for an animal to coneuuie this eicefis. This rule tfoiili vary in proportion as the lit raw -was green and bright and the hay override. Tho straw of wheat, barley, and oats is not »o valuable fo* manufacturing into paper a* that of rya, but for animal food is superior. Three time.! more of straw of those grains should be fed than of hay, in order to furnish the s.vme nutriment. This statement is founded on tba supposition that all of the «traw will bj consumed. This is never the caae; honco, if the farmer would keep hiß .etoc 1 * up to » hi\y standard, he must not require nis ntock to piok eo close, but give t':<!ui more to select their food from, or lia taiist supplement the straw with a little -graio. A gill of o:«s a day to a sheep, or a ,(>:ut of coram.al to a cow, will make up the 'in nutriment when straw is fed. {This in * fair conclusion when the reapeetive analyses of straw ;>nd grain are summed up, *i)d I bare found that practically the above c.malunions are correct. Straw can be utilised for m&nurUl purpcse3 better by being fed to stock than by being thrown into the barnyard tu slowly decompose. The more stock a farmer can carry through the winter, the larger will be (he manure pile and the eniming crop. Msiuy western farmers oould doubtless add to their herds—and profits, too —by using the straw of the farm supplemented with enough grain to promote vigorous f>?owth. Tho same is true of the smaller araaora of tho east. Straw with a little grain foots up no more in tho scale of cost than hay. There should be a variety of stock on the farm to rightly niiliae straw. Whero this is the case there ue \d bo but little waste. Let the sheep be fed daring the day and at night bo bountifu'ly that their rucks, when cleaned out in the morning, will furnish enough of hits and "terns to supply all that may be needful for the colts and breeding mares to pick ov<»r during tho day and to bed thorn plentifully for the night. At night feed them plenty of straw with buckwheat bran or oats, rating the niesß according to age and size. The fodder pulled out of the raoks and trodden under foot will bo saturated with the strong urinal salts of the sheep, and will be eaten by the horses. Horses will eat the bedding of oheep, and cattle that of horses. Carry the straw uieA for the bedding of the horses into the barnyard, and scatter it arouisd lor tlw cowb. They will eat it greedily, a? it wili be saturated with the salts «jf the uriue, which they crave, especially if they have not been fed with common salt regularly a- d in quantities to satiate their appetite. The portion of straw whioh the cows leave may be used to bed other horses and bo given afterwards daily to the cows. The saturated straw will supply all the salts the cattle and hones require, and in the very forms of which fhe system is depleted by the natural oourse of physical action. The waste etraw left scattered around tho barnyard may be u«cd to bed the cows, and if there is not enough of this t he balancejrequired may be taken from the ricks. I have followed this plan for years, and with this close and careful management nearly all of the straw crop can -he consumed during the winter, adding to the growth &nd number of the stock, and at the ea.ni j making manure of superior value ready for immediate use.

There is but little difference in the actual -nutritive value of rye, wheat, oat, and barley etraw. Wheat and barley straw are considered: by some oheznitt* to contain the most nutrition, and rye etraw to be the weakest. By Others oat straw h made the Btrongeet in albumen, fat, utaroh, >\nd gum, which are the flsah foroiing and fattening qualities. This difference in analyses is accounted for by the difference in the samples analysed, as every farmer know* that the straw of grain out when turning, before it is ripe, and gathered in good order, is worth double that of straw dead ripe, from which the most of the juices have dried out end the vegetable substance of the plant has bean transformed into woody fibre worthless for food, and of but little account for manure, being more valuable as an absorbent than for any intrinsic worth. Straw with coarse stalks has leas nutritive value, as it contains more woody fibre. As a rule, the eofter and finer the straw, the better fodder it is and the loss work. Steaming otraw breaks down and softens the cellular tissues and fibres of straw, and reduce* it to a condition so that it will be all consumed by stock. Stoaming will not pay, so far as the straw alone is concerned, as the nutritive value of the harder portions made palatable by steaming is so little, but when roots and meal are fed'with Btraw largely, acd the Btraw is deiigned not bo much for nourishment as to Bupply the necessary waste material for the healthy distention of the bowels, steaming the food is desirable, especially for cows giving milk. When straw is fed in this wt»y, a liberal allowance of salt ebould bo addtd. Steaming fodder will never be extensively practised, on account of the expensive outlay and the risks from fire. Animals will always eat Btraw or any ooarse fobd Lout in oold weather, as their appetites are koener at suoh times.—" New York Weekly Tribune."