FEED FOR STOCK.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXII, Issue 2789, 12 May 1911, Page 2

FEED FOR STOCK.

BENEFIT OF VARIETY.

Peas make good silage and good hay, also good soiling food, but one sees them little used for these purposes. We can produce, says the Live Siock Journal, such an infinite variety of green food by ringing the changes a little and mixing seed judiciously that it seems a pity a change of bite is no more olten catered for than it is by stock farmers. Variety is directly conducive to success in feeding, and it need

cost no more than a monotonous same-

ness ot diet, yet one sees little of it in many cases. Our American friends can teach us something here, for they believe in many uses oi fodder crops that we are slow to adopt over here. Peas and rape, for example, lend themselves very well for this purpose, for both are quick growing luscious plants, well loved by stock of all kinds, and they mix well with more slowly growing crops. Peas

in the States are grown for hay, as well as for the other purposes already mentioned, and give up to four tons per acre, though they require a considerable amount of staking, like tares, whose value for forage is very similar all round to peas. Peas and oats are there considered a good combination for hay, but the peas should be allowed a start,

or they may get choked, and the oats can be drilled when the peas are two inches high without causing damage. Two bushels of each make a good seeding, and the time for cutting is when the first lot of pods is just maturing for the table. Rape, at any rate, is a good

English crop, but it is very local. It has iound favour mixed with mustard,

oats and peas or beans, but the writer has never heard of it being mixed with clover in this country, though in the States it is found to be very successful, and it is very popular, as this forms excellent sheep-keep.