Show EFFICIENT HEDING AND LIVESTOCK MANAGEMENT Dy By Dr Gustav Bohstedt Emeritus Professor of Animal husbandry University of 01 Wisconsin Can Be Profitable As contrasted with the Euro Euro- European pear custom of fly meals n a aday day including midmorning and the snacks fore fore- forerunners runners runnelS of our m day cof- cof coffee coffee fee breaks we in the United States long ago settled on three relatively large meals a day In large measure we wc set up our tock stock feeding schedules the same way H I recall 0 years years ago agon agoa agori ri tj that people a n t sai said the atom re 1 ach needs a arest j rest lest and we 1 should not put food into it at too frequent intervals Tests with livestock cast Dr Bohstedt doubt t en this now We should keep in mind that the actual digestion in the stomach stomach ach and intestines is carried on onby onby by enzymes and enzymes some some- somehow how never get tired It is amazing amazing ing that tiny amounts of these chemical agents are able to split protein into amino acids starches into sugars and fats into fatty acids It Is in the lat hat latter hatter ter forms that the different foods actually enter the blood bloodstream bloodstream stream and the body proper Now we have increasing evidence that instead of feed feed- feedIng feeding Ing livestock twice a day or at most three times it has paid to feed them up to eight tImes a day There have been one or two exceptions in experiments reported which may be taken as proving the rule Beef cattle at the Maryland Experiment Station were fed fedon fedon on the hour for ten hours a day instead of the common twice a schedule On a ration of ground alfalfa hay salt and bone meal the hourly fed cattle gained 65 pounds compared to 48 pounds during an day 87 reversal feeding period and they did it on 30 percent less feed At the University of Missouri milking dairy cows were fed twicE others 4 times and still others 7 times a day They pro pro- produced and pounds of milk daily respectively Cows fed 4 times a day produced 95 pound of milk per pound of feed eaten compared to pound milk per pound of feed for cows fed twice a aday aday day There was about 4 percent better di digestion of feed when fed more frequently than twice a day dar The University of Wis- Wis Wisconsin Wisconsin also reported better re- re results results from 4 and 8 times a day feeding of dairy c cattle Similar favorable results from frequent feedings during a hour 24 day with both sheep and cattle have been reported from British and other foreign sources These findings have special pushbutton importance now that push but ton and clock time regulated mechanical feeding of rations is b becoming increasingly prevalent alent and practical Question Our pigs and nd cows seem to like Ine acorns is there much feed value in them Answer Anwer Acorns do not con con- constitute constitute a modern ration for either eith- eith either er pigs or cows Their woody hulls and tannic add acid and som- som what constipating effect may not hive bothered animals too much in pioneer days but acorns acorn are to be regarded as practically worthless nowadays When badly molded In late fall they are that mu much h worse |