COW FODDER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 285, 25 April 1911, Page 7

COW FODDER

THE LESSON OF THE SEASON. The drought has effectually broken, but the needed moisture has come to revive pastures at too late a stage in the I season. In many parts, however, good growth is resulting, but it is a growth of poor feeding value, says the Wellington Post. There was never a season in our dairying districts when the need otj ensilage was more emphasised, for the' experience of the past few months has proved that notwithstanding its relatively high cost (where labor has to be all employed) this would have been counterbalanced many times over in having a liberal supply of a succulent, milkencouraging food. True an increasing number of milk producers are growing green maize for feeding to their cows in the summer months, but this is only available for a brief period, especially as too many farmers do not make continuous plantings, but put in the whole crop at once. When the maize has given out this year what has been left for the stock. A poor, innutritious pasture, and perhaps some hay saved for the winter. Had ensilage been provided this could have been fed from month to month, and the dairy farmer would be now independent of the ordinary means of providing cow fodder. If the lesson of this season will force dairymen to turn their attention to ensilage for their dairy stock it will have proved a blessing in disguise. Australian dairymen have been forced to adopt ensilage arid apparently it is only adverse weather .'conditions that will impress the necessity of providing it oh our own dairy farmers. Several Taranaki milk-producers have set an excellent example in economical silage preparation. They have cooperated in the making of each other's silage so that the combined effort has reduced the cost to a minimum. But the most valuable lesson of this season has been the demonstration at the Moumohaki experimental station of the possibility of establishing lucerne on the poorer soils of Taranaki and other illfavored situations, that is when modern* and careful methods of husbandry have been adopted. There is no finer cow feed on earth than lucerne, and it is regarded both in the United States and Australia as the best of all feeds for stock. To the dairy farmer it is particularly valuable, for not only is it ideal for milking stock, but it is a capital feed for topping off pigs.