The Value of Bran.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 170, 18 September 1886, Page 1

The Value of Bran.

Bran is undoubtedly more highly esteemed than it was by farmers twenty to thirty years ago. It is at least higher priced, which is the best evidence of appreciation,-, and if there are those who still regard it as nearly worthless, it is from lack ''of knojv-' 1 ledge to enable them to limit its use to ' the purposes for which it is best adapted.' Those' who use it rightly value it more every year, and there' are probably some purposes for which it is better feed .than' any other that can be given. Il> id light, wholesome, easily digested', and contains, w hen at. its best, considerabla portions of bone and flesh-forming elements. It is the?e which give its chief value. For fattening it. is of no use whatever, unless it be as a divider to prevent more concentrated food from clogging the btomach. The commonest use of bran ia as food for milch cows, and for this, if combined with grain or meal, it is excellent. Good bran j contains the elements of milk, excepting ' fat. If that is not supplied from some other source the milk will be thin and poor. If the cow is *at herself, heavy feeding with bran will stimulate lai'ge milk secretions, the cream and butter from which will be supplied from fats stored in the cow's body. In tnis way some farmers are unconsciously engaged in making a quasi oleomargarine, or rather thoy are forcing their cows into tli is disreputable business. If a cow is fat in spring when fresh in milk, and on grass, bran, roots or any other milk-sthnnlating | food gror.B poor and thin, she has in that time turned perhaps thirty to fifty pounds of her own fat into the milk pail, to be manufactured into butter. This may or may not be good policy. It depends, as do so many other things, on circumstances. Nothing is good if carried to extremes. No one expects a cow, a'ter giving milk five or six months, to be fat. If she is, it is a sign that she is not worth much for the dairy, but neither is excessive reduction of fat or flesh good, and this is the more common danger. ' If bran is fed extensively to milch cows, it should be combined with corn meal or some other food rich in fat. Milkmen near cities understand this, and though selling milk whole they are not interested directly in its richness in cream or butter; they never allow milch cows to grow poor. In the early flow of milk, after the cow has calved, they feed a good deal of bran, but mixed mith brewers' trains, corn or cotton-seed meal. As the ow of milk decreases the proportion of fattening food ia increased, until after ten or twelve months of constant milking the cow is ready to turn off to the butcher. Bran with other teed is valuable for working horses. Fat here is not so much desired as strength and endurance. The value of wheat for giving strength is well known, and if some wheat refuse is mixed with bran it makes the very best of feed for horses where severe work is required. Mixed with moistened cut hay it is more quickly eaten and more easily digested than uncut hay and whole grain. — Cultivator,