CHANGING THE STOCK FOOD

Shannon News, 4 March 1927, Page 4

CHANGING THE STOCK FOOD

MAKE ALTERATIONS GRADUALLY It frequently becomes necessary in the course of a year's work with the •herd to make some changes in the .feed; and occasionally the changes that are made, must be more or less radical, involving a change to a ration of a materially different character to that which has previously been fed. Such marked changes in the ration, cither of milking cows or young animals, should be made gradually. The ( most marked changes bring about the most noticeable effects, such, for instance, as the frequently noticed tendency to scour on the part of the .animals that are suddenly turned on good succulent pasture after having been used to dry feed for sevcra: •months. The extreme succulencj of the young grass, in the spring ol the year has a marked laxative effeel on the bowels of the animals, and th« result frequently is a scouring whicl requires some time to recover from These occurrences, whether of scour ing or of constipation as a result 01 sudden changes from pasturo to drj feed conditions in the autumn ar< due to the fact that the digestive systems of the animal become accustomed to certain kinds and proportions of nutrients and water, and re quire some time before they can adjust themselves to a ration materially different in character.