WINTER FEEDING

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 535, 19 May 1933, Page 15

WINTER FEEDING

effect on production advice to farmers "Probably no other single factor in successful farm naeement plays so important a part in production as does the Lter feeding' of live stock," says Mr. W. Alexander, Agriculral Adviser to Messrs. Kempthorne, Prosser and Co., in a !cial article supplied for the "Morning Post." "It is here, also," continues, "that one finds the difference between good farmLnd those who are more or less indijfferent as to results.

j aET me say right at the start that in my opinion fM we are right here face to face Problem that |ic is deserving of more con^sideration than has been in the past — I refer to the numter or percentage of k losses that occur annually in the b and herds of the Dominion. It j iated authoritatively that the re- j !emeI1t loss through causes other ! j ieaths amounts, in the case of ' iy dairy herds in the north, fo as ' a5 25 per cent annually. Now iis camnaigir to prevent unneces■®ste. we must treat winter feedasa factor of first-rate impor-

% eime put it to you this way:— * our great dairy cattle populaThey come to the end of a more |ess strenuous producing season, agwhicli a normal eow will have y seven or eight times her own #inmilk; she is well advanced er matronly1 duty of reproducing tind and never was more in need jstand attention. Yet what do we ffintly find? Herds left to f orage iliemselves and instead of the er months being a period of rest recuperation, it is more than ever »wli! for existenee.

jave seen herds of dairy cows :ed out on to so-eallcd rough feed fe timo and left there until they e, the farmer concerned always igfor the best but in the mean- ! doing nothing to help his cattle the most critical period of the ; j have also seen cases where s we turned in to feed off fe 0f turnips, their only shelter iefence and, at times wallowing

ideep in mud an their search ±or ips, Apart altogether froni its ton production, this sort of treat iiscruelin the extreme and must eany decent-minded person to E3t, Let the winter conditions rour stock be just as warm and anipleasant as you can possibly » ihem and your eft'orts will be Syrewarded. Feed Out Earlv. iink that in many cases feeding left too late in the season. Hioi catching stock before they achance of going otf in condimany will wait until the winter fairly caught them and the result his is just to 'loring the cattle igh in lower and weaker condition is desirable. It will not take morefeed to maintain a beast in

' good condition than it will take to carry through one in poor condition. Start early should be the rule and do not stint the rations. Ensilage Management.

As ensilage probably forms the largest percentage of the winter feed provided for stock we might just consider one or two points of interest here. In the first place there are some who lay down a sort of weight allowance per beast per da.y but that counts for little and to my mind not worth" repeating. If the ensilage is good stuff let the cattle have as much as they will eat up cleanly each day. When fed out in conjunction with hay, ensilage may or may not be eaten freely. The two together probably provide too much dry matter or too much bu'lk and would be all the better of having something fresh and succulent fed out at the same time — young grass, turnips or chou moellier for instance.

Last season in the Waikato, there were were several cases where it was •supposed that digestive troubles experienced were due to ensilage feeding; that may have been true of some so-called ensilage that was fed out. I saw more than one case where the ensilage hurnt the grass in.th'e paddocks where it was carted out, and it is not too much to suppose that the same ensilage was quite capable of causing digestive troubles in stomachs of the cattle fed on it. If any of you find that the ensilage to be used this season has a tendency to burn the grass, do not let the cattle at it until it has been exposed to the atmosphere for about 24 hours. By carting out a day ahead of requirements the extreme acidity of this class of ensilage will be reduced to a less harmful stage. I believe it is a good idea to feed the day's rations. of ensilage in two issues — one in the morning and one at night — with an issue of hay in between. When roofs are available, they should replace the evening issue of ensilage. This would mean having two 'paddocks at least for feeding out ! in, as the evening rations have to he ! carted out during the day, and it , would then permit of a programme eonsisting of ensilage in the morning, ! with hay and roots in the afternoon or , evening. ( The feeding of ensilage to sheep is quite a good practice, in fact the idea is supported very enthusiastically by many successful sheep-farmers. Ewes in _lamb, wintered on ensilage, will

come through in good condition and with a minimum of trouble at lambing time. About 21b of lensilage per ewe per .day is considered an ample ration. At first sheep are sometimes shy of ensilage but once they make a' start on it they become very foild of it. ■

_ A: useful idea for feeding out ensilage is to make a rack in the paddock simply hy erecting one or two coils of sheep netting about 18 inches' out from, and running parallel to, a fence. Put the ensilage into the -space between the two and it can be fed out from either side. Hay the Background. Hay could he fed out in the same way unless one wants it to do worlv other than supplying the immediate requirements of stock, Good rye grass hay can always be used to help' re-seed a pasture that has detefiorated or paspalum hay can he used the same way to introduce this particular ' grass into a pasture. In such cases the wider the( hay is spread out the more effeetive will be the re-seeding result.

No matter what is the main source of supply of winter feed, I am satisfied that in all cases hay should form the background and he fed out along with every other crop. Much has been said in favour of winter grass and many farmers g'o to a great deal of expense and trouble in their efforts to have a supply of fresh grass at such unseasonable periods as JuneJulyi I am by no means convinced that this winter grass has the extremely high value p'laced upon it by some enthusiasts unless, of course, it is being fed to cows in milk. It is interesting to note that in the work earried on hy Mr. Hudson, of the Department _ of Agriculture, ia.t Marton, the grass produced during the winter months contains a lower nercentaeie

of calcium and phosphoric acid than does the herbage produced during the norrhal grass season. Of course, that winter grass may still be extremely rich eompared to other types of food available at the time, but even then it wants balancing with good hay. All classes of stock, at almost all periods of the year, relish well-made hay, in fact even if no other form of winter fodder* is available, hay alone Will bring stock through that period quite well.

Root Crops. The utilisation of root crops is a matter for individual eonsideration. If it was wholly a question of doing the best for stock then one would say that roots should be pulled and .carted out to be fed on a clean grass paddock. In many cases roots are being grown as a sort of breaking-in crop 'and especially is this the case on the light, free soils of the pumice areas. Under these conditions it is certainly better for the land's sake to have the crop fed off where it has been grown. "Where dairy cows are used for feeding off turnips or swedes, they should not have more than an hour or two a day on the crop and they should have hay fed to them on the grass p!addock used as a run off. With sheep, the case is a little different afid they may be left 'on longer but preferahly not overnight. I remember a very successful feeding experiment earried out with breeding ewes in the south, wherein swedes and oaten sheaf chaff played the principal roles. There was

■no hay available that season and the pastures on the areas -were extremely poor. Good crop-s of oats and swedes ha.d been grown and on those some 900 ewes were wintered. The swedes were fenced off in hreakg of about three acres and the ewes had ahout three to four hours a day on them. Th'e oats had been cut into chaff and this was fed by means of covered selffeeding boxes on the grass paddoek used as a run off. This sort of feeding proved to be both economical and satisfactory.; Both swedes and chaff lasted.' well Whilst the effect on 'the ewes was to bring them through lambing in great condition With a minimum of trouble and loss.

Mangolds. From a .feeding out point of view, mangolds are best left until the very last, even if it should he September before they are required. The best way to handle this crop is to pull all roots carefully, cut off the tops and cleap, the earth off the roots. • They should then be carted into a h'eap in a position that will be handy for carting out later on. Staclc them pro-

perly and leave in the stack for, say, a week, at the end of which time. the heap should be covered with straw or hay and then a coating of soil, to a depth of four or five inches. Stored in this way, mangolds will keep for a ing value of the roots improves as time goes on. Sheepmen in parts of the South Island grow mangolds in-, atead of swedes for feeding off in the winter but here in the North, where mangold crops are heavier and their chief use is for feeding to dairy cows, it p'ays to pit them and hold them for feeding out at the back end of the season. Chou Moellier. This crop can be fed off on the land wh'ere, it is growing in the same way as a crop of swedes or it can he cut and carted on to a clean paddoek. Where the crop is grown for dairy cattle, either heifers or mature cows, 'and where the feeding-off system is to be a'dopted, care must be taken to avoid digestive troubles. There is al-

ways a danger of red-water in cattle where stock are turned on to a crop of chou moellier and left there too long. Again, it " is safer to give them only an hour or two a day, especially at the start of a new break when the beavy crop of succulent green leaves will tempt ia beast to overload h'erself; later on when the break is reduced to partly eaten stems the risk of red-water is much reduced. Hay should always be fed out in conjunction with chou moellier as then the danger of digestive disturbances is entirely eliminated. When feeding out to dairy cattle it is more economical and more satisfactory to cut the chou .

moellier and cart it out. There is no waste and the cut crop can always be allowed to wilt for some hours before it is given to stock. Sheep do very well on chou moellier and they eat it off with a minimum of waste, even if the crop is over their backs as is usually the case. They will clean up the leaves within their reach for a start and will then tackle the stem, eating it through until the top falls down to where they can get at it.. It is not worth while looking for a second growth of chou moellier even where the crop is cut for carting out; the cutting is usually done with a slasher and the plants cut off within a

few dnches of ihe ground. It is possible that a few fresh shoots will appear on the stumps hut they ara not likely to develop into anything worth while and I would certainly not advise anyone to depend upon this second growth. Other Supplementary Fodders. _ Hay, ensilage, roots and chou moHlier by no means constitute the only satisfactory winter fodd'ers at the disposal of farmers. Th'ese crops being home-grown and consequently not costly ara certainly the ones in most general use, but there are others such a$ cereals and- concentrates that are worthy of attention. For vouner stock

of all classes, most partieularly hoggets, a ration of grain such a's oats or barley, or a concientrate such a's moose nuts, is invaluable. It takes comparatively little of any of these foods keep the young stock thriving and any man who wants to do his young stock well will find profit in feeding out a ration of, .say, 11b of

oats to each hogget, or 21b ' to each young beast every day. Long, shallow troughs, made by nailing three 8x1 boards together hox fashion, with a couple of end pieces each ahout 18 inches long, serves the purpose, admirably for hoggets. Whole, grain should be used as it is less liahie to damage by weather and is not apt to blow away. For a start put out just a small quantity as all stock will not take to it at once; half !a pound of oats a day i's suf&cient until they. get used to this feed and then gradually j increase the quantity up to 11b per ' day. j Common Sense Methods. j It would be futile to attempt to lay down hard and fast methods for winter feeding of stock; this is a task call- J ing for just ordinary common sense, | plus a touch of humanity. What ever j sort of winter feed you have provided, see to it that it is used early enough, j that it is fed out cleanly and that j cattle of sheep, as the case may be, ! get enough of it, Make the fullest possible usie of what shelter is available and iftffinances permit provide J covers for all milking cows. Th'ere is ; an old saying to the effect that "every j shiver costs a cupi of milk"; I believe j that to be absolutely truc, consequent- J ly I believe that every device used to i prevent cattle from shivering in tlle winter time is more than justified. The two most obvious effects of sound winter feeding of dairy cattle are (1) a minimum of trouble at calving time, and (2) increased production during the following lactation p-eriod. There ; is no doubting the fact that cattle properly cared for during the winter get quickly into their stride in the spring as then they have no leeway to make up as have cattle that were left to fend for themselves. Toning Up Pasture.

Just one another point I would make at this sta'ge, and that is the | practice of using the opportunity offered by feeding out to tone up one or two paddocks that may have. got down in condition. By concentrating stock in a small area and feeding them there in a liberal way with roots, hay and ensilage, quite a heavy deposit of animal manure will be dropped, and this, when harrowed into the. land later will greatly imp-rove the fertility of the land, concerned. A paddoek treated in this way will not forg-et it and the treatment can be earried out in such' a way that the stock used will not suffer. Winter feeding time also provides a good opportunity for giving most of the grass country a much needed spell. This is a time when the harrow should he ■ kept gOing cleaning and surface cultivating the land. Between autumn top-dressing, plenty of harrowing and a couple of months' spell, there should he no shortage of spring grass in August, when the majority of herds come into profit.