CATTLE FOOD.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 427, 11 February 1875, Page 2

CATTLE FOOD.

We find in a recent is*ne of The Agricultural Gazette, \ London, an account of the successful practice of »n English liu^bbiwltTifin who during muny yeara has used wheat " in the feeding of and weaning calves and young stock " with very satufaetory results. If for cattle, he prefers the wheat " groan 1 rut'ier finely in a stone mill, with a inuturtf of be.ins or barley;" for chives and young stock the wheat meal alone. His system is to mingle it with cut straw, or hay-ohafF, or a mixture of the two, two thirds straw to one third huy. A sufficient quantity of chail* for one d iy's use is spread on the barn floor ; the flour is measured out and scattered over (he chafT; the mess is then sprinkled with olpan water fiom a watering pot, and the whole turned over two or three times. SufH lent water is necessary to slightly moisten the duff and ci4'e the m >al to adhere. It is then placed in a hpap, and u»ed as required. S )>ne boil the win at and mix with the chaff; lie greatly prefers using the meal. C me, Rivet t, nn I nome of the other coarser varieties of red wheat iiivaiinhly give him large returns; at present they can be bought at 42s per quarter, or Id per lb. At this price he know 9 of no kind of feeding stuff so cheap or whole oue for fattening bullocks. The quintity is 41ns of meal per (Jay, and 41bs of best linseed cake ; for calves and young growing stock from 2lbs to 41bs per day is a fair allow an re- - v '^ Another "English farmer speaking of profitable keep for sheep and bullocks, has good words for cabttage. He says that " about 14 acres of th-) Drumhead /afiety, sown in spring, will prove very useful indeed." He begins to prepare for the crop the middle of September, selecting an outstubble, an 1 pubtmg on to say 2j loads per acre of good fit tn dun/, w'uch is ploughed in. The ground then lies till April, when he applies twenty loads per acre more dutiL'," aid " broa (shares on Hie surlace," The soil is then harrowed down, and the plants dibbled in rows six /eet aput, and three feet, apart in the row. Xho surface is then kept clean " bv means of a brake," and the first week in May he runs down between the rows of cabbage with a tivo slieaied drill some Suede turnip-seed, and th» turnips are liowed out when fit. About the end of October ho begins t>> cut the cabbige and carry them to the e«es on the pastures and the bullocks in the yards. JHo e^neralty gro*s from 45 to 50 tons per acre. Tnese 450 or 500 tons keep 50 bulloi ks from the end of October te Mny 1. ahoHt six months. Tlie bullocks have two tons per day, or 333 tons for twenty-four weeks. As the bullocks are fed on nothing but the cubbaye, five pounds of cotton cake and oat sfra^, they L'o to the pastures in May, where they fatten and go to the butcher during (he summer months. The sheep consume the remaining 114 tons uitb half a pint of oats, and a little mult du«t nnd cut hay. The Swede turnips which re maiu on the land are fed ofF by the tups after all the other turnips are gone, The land is then ploughed up and lallowed during the summer, and put in with wheat the following autuuiu.