DRIED GRASS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 June 1938, Page 9

DRIED GRASS

NUTRITIVE VALUE AS FEED FALLS. EXPERIENCE IN BRITAIN. Grass is the principal live S'kjck food, and in considering the feedingYf live stock, the “Guide" gives first place to grassland produce. Much attention has been given recently in England to the artificial drying of grass—a process that has taken the fancy of farmers. There were 46 grass driers at work in the country in 1936, but so far, states “The Farmers’ Guide,” experience “has not been entirely happy as regards either production or utilisation of dried grass." Several important problems have still to be solved before the grass drier can be established as part of the normal equipment of even a large farm. When grass is cut young, or say from four to six inches in length, its dry matter contains 15 per cent, or often up to 20 per cent of crude protein; but the snag is that as the grass grows the protein coment and the nutritive value fall steadily, until a point is reached when it can no longer be regarded as a concentrate, and in a season of rapid growth there will be wide variations in the quality of the product. The Association of Dried Grass Producers has recognised the difficulty, and classified their product into four grades according to protein content; but it is not at all certain that this system of grading could be worked satisfactorily in practice. Then, while the claims as to the food value of dried grass were until recently based mainly upon data for chemical composition and digestibility, there is now a growing volume of experience of its practical use in feeding experiments and on the farm; and while the results of feeding tests appear generally to confirm the claims based on chemical analysis, dried grass has not tn all cases proved a satisfactory food, and in some casfts for reasons not always apparent, it has failed to function properly. A good deal of work still requires to be done in the investigation of dried grass as a food for live stock.