FEEDING OF DAIRY COWS.

Waikato Argus, Volume III, Issue 221, 11 December 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

FEEDING OF DAIRY COWS.

We take the following from Mr Lowe's papor on " The Dairy Industry in the Colonies :"—Breeding, is not evorylbing in a dairy herd. It is quite as essential to study focding. Summer feeding is very easy. It is the winter food for cews that requires the greatest amount of labour; and skill in its preparation. A fact that impressed mo as most curious during my visit to Australia and NewZealand was the almost complete absence of any preparation of winter food for cows. At the Hawkosbury Agricultural College in New South Wales, however, Mr Thompson, the able President, who seems full}' alive to the necessity for winter feed, showed me a silo of this splendid ensilage made from Indian corn and othor constituents, which ho had prepared for cows. Ho told'mo the results of feeding the cows on this ensilago gave him great satisfaction. He was at that time busily engaged in finding out the best feed for the production of milk and butter in winter. Unfortunately, I am not ablo to give the outcome of his experiments, but I can supply the results of a very valuable and interesting experiment mado in Canada for the same purpose by Mr James W. Robertson, Dairy Commissioner to that colony. In an official report he says the ensilago he recommends for the feeding of cows may be prepared as follow : " Half a bushel of horse beans are mixed with one third of a bushel of ludian corn, a-id aro sown or planted on an aore in rows 3ft to 3 l ft apart; when the ooru reaches the grazing stage of growth, the product from two acres of the mixture (which being grown together is necessarily handled as one crop) is cut and put into the silo, together with the heads from half an acre of sunflowers. Two acrts of fodder corn at 15 tons per acre furnish?s 1,200 single feeds of 501 b each. This moans that two acres of trio ensilage arid the half acre of sunflower heads will give a cow food for 1,200 days, or say eight cdwb for 150 days. The cost of this ensilage is 6s per ion. The sunflower heads are for providing the fat which is deficient in the Indian corn and beans. COMBINATION FOR ENSILAGE, AND HOW TO MAKE IT. The following is the combination for ensilage recommended by Professor Robertson and how to make it: The object of the new Robertson combination for ensilage was to get the heat producing parts, the flesh-forming partf, and the fat together in such proportions that the cow would get at evory meal a perfectly-balanced ration. In this new combination we have ludian corn, horse beans, and sunflowers, and it appears to be a porfect combination, which will give cattle a food which contains all the nourishment repuired. Indian corn—the great sun-plant of America, is undoubtedly the most serviceable crop which has boen used for ensilage, but, although it be ever so well preserved as to succulence, odour, flavour, and colour, it is an incomplcto food for cattle. With marvellous proclivity for staring up starch, gum, and sugar out of the elements of tho air, tho corn-plant becomes a veritable accumulator of sun, strength, and energy. Its earbon-hydratrs, or " heatproduoing parts," are largely in excess of its albuminoids, or " flesh forming parts." These latter are present in no moan quantities in fodder corn per ucro, but, lor a wholesome, economical, c iraplete food, they are out of correct proportion to the other constituents. Tho horse bean, or small field bean (Fuba vulgaris, var. £ijiii/tn), seems to meet the need of the case. This plant grows with a stiff erect stem of quadrangular shape. It attaius horo a height of from 3i't to 4ft, and it grows in Kuglaud and Scotland to a height of from 3ft to 6ft. It bears pods from within 6in to Biu from the base of tho stalk to near its top. The ripened bean" aro of a grsyish-browu

colour, and of an oblong round shape, about L'ng diameter and about fin in short diameter, Although albuminoids and carbonhydrates (in tho form of starch, sugar, if urn, and fibre) may be contained in Indian corn, and horse beans mixture in nearly correct proportions, it is still an incomplete fuoJ, for deficiency in fat. The sunflower (Helianlhwi annus) groves luxuriantly over the whole temperate zone of of this continent, and tho seeds contain a largo percentage of fat. The variety know as the " Mammoth Russian " was grown in rows 3ft a art. with *ho |.hints from 3in to ISiudi-tant in the rows. There did not appear to be anv appreciable difference in the weight of the seed per aero where tho plants were grown close or move dictant in the rows. They yielded at tho rate of 7£ tons of sunflower heads per acre. From analyses made by Mr Shutt, it was established that they contained 3551 b. of albuminoids and 7291 b. of fat per acre. Half a bushol of horse beans are mixed with one third of a bushel of Indian corn and are sown or plantod on one acre, in rows 3ft ta 3jft apart- The method of cultivation to bo followsd is similar to that for culture of fodder corn. When the corn reaches the grazing stage of growth, the prodact from 2 acres of the mixture (which being grown together, is necessarily handled as one crop) is cut and put into silo, together with the heads from half an acre of the heads of sunflowers. The sun-flower head* may be reapod with a common sickle, cartiod to the cutting box on a cart or waggon, and rut through it, on and with the Indian corn and horse beans.

Two acres of fodder corn, at 15 tons p-r acre, furnish 1,290 single feeds of 501 b. each. Tbo albuminoids in theso hoise beans and in the heads from half an acre of sun flowers are tho equivalent of the albuminoids in tho quantity of mixed cereals sufficient to girc 4jlb. with every feed of the 1,200. It is to be expected that further experiments will demonstrate that the albuminoids in the bors-j beans and sunflowtrs, fcci g in a succulent condition, would be more easily and fully digestible than the ripened cereals. The cost .to produce the " Robertson Combination for Ensilage " from acres is lodol more than the cost for growing 2 acres alone. The ex. tra ito'i s arc : Sunflower seed for half an acre, labour of planting, cultivating, and reaping half an aero of sunflowers, und horse beans seed f■ r 2 acres, 15dol. Against the outlay of lodol, the return in albuminoids is tho equivalent, for tbo fetding cattle, of 115 bushels of mixed cereals. I have made no estimate of the value of the large quantity of fat, in the sunflower heads.