FATTENING LAMBS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 3 December 1927, Page 12

FATTENING LAMBS

CONSUMPTION OF SALT. Tho salt consumption of fattening lambs is a matter which Messrs Evvard and others of the lowa Agricultural Station have been experimenting in. A study has been made of the relation of the ration to salt consumption and tho normal salt requirements of fattening lambs, and it based on tho results of seven winters’ lamb-feeding experiments conducted on 31 different rations and 1306 lambs. In all the experiments salt was self-fed. Variations in the average salt consumption in individual lots were as a great as from o.oollb to 0.0191 b per head daily, the average daily consumption being o.olllb per lamb. These wide variation were evidently related to the salt content, of the various rations. Feeding beet molasses tends to decrease the salt consurirption, ■whereas alfalfa hay had the opposite effect. When cane molasses, which has a lower salt content than beet mnlasses, was substituted the salt consumption increased. Fattening lambs consume much more salt per unit weight than steers fed under similar conditions, and whereas the daily salt consumption of iambs increases during the feeding period that of the steers decreases. Lambs in tho finishing lots consume more roughage in proportion to concentrates than do steers; this ratio of roughage to concentrates is tho more marked as the period of feeding progresses. The greater tho proportion of roughage the larger apparently is tho salt consumption. Tho salt required for’ 1001 b gain of 1306 fattening lambs averaged 3.781 b, the range Being from 0.211 b to 11.181 b. The factors probably affecting sale consumption are discussed from various angles, from which it appears that the salt consumption probably increases as larger amounts of protein and fibre are consumed, but evidently other factors are also responsible.