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Show FEED AVAILABLE FOR CATTLE IS WASTED I - - THRESHING SCENE IN NORTHWEST. (From the United States Department of Agriculture.) A vast quantity of feed available for cattle Is now either wasted absolutely abso-lutely or put to some less profitable use, says a recent report which the department has just published as Part IV of a comprehensive survey of the entire meat situation in the United States. Failure to utilize the full value of this material has Increasd unnecessarily the cost of producing meat, has diminished the profits from cattle feeding, and has discouraged many farmers from engaging in an industry in-dustry essential to their permanent prosperity. According to the report already mentioned, the loss In grain, straw, and corn stover amounts to more than ?100,000,000 annually. Both of these products are disposed of most economically econom-ically when fed to cattle in connection with some form of concentrated feed. Straw Is especially valuable In carrying carry-ing the breeding herd through the winter, In wintering stockers, and as a supplementary roughage for fattening fatten-ing cattle. Stover, too, Is an excellent excel-lent feed for wintering cattle, especially especial-ly mature breeding cows. Nevertheless, Neverthe-less, in many sections of the country where these products are abundant, little attempt is made to take advantage advan-tage of their value for these purposes. Of an annual straw crop of approxi mately 120,000,000 tons, it is estimated that only two-thirds Is put to Its best use live-stock production. Of the remainder, a little more than one-half one-half is sold or turned under and the rest, 15 per cent of the total crop, Is burned. Burning Is practically an ibsolute waste, and although plowing inder does contribute something to soli fertility, the benefit to the land Is less than that which would be derived fom the use of the straw to produce manure. "Of all systems of obtaining permanent soli fertility," says the report, "none Is so practical or as easily available as that of feeding feed-ing live stock." The average value of all kinds of straw Is placed at about $5 a ton. In many sections, of course, no such price can be realized for it, and as a matter of fact only about 8 per cent of the crop actually Is sold. The figure fig-ure mentioned, however, may be taken tak-en as representing the value to the farmer of straw If he will use it properly prop-erly in his farming operations as feed or bedding. In order to Illustrate how this may be done the report gives three sample rations for wintering a breeding herd of beef cattle on straw combined with silage, shock corn, and cottonseed or linseed meal. Anyone of these rations, it Is said, will prove economical. They are as follows: Rations for Wintering Breeding Cows. Ration 1: Straw 10 Silage 20 Cottonseed meal or linseed meal.. Ration s: Straw 20 Cottonseed cake or oil cake 2 Ration 3: Straw .' 10 Shock corn 10 Cottonseed mea! In this connection It Is pointed out also that feeding straw In the winter will Insure under certain circumstances circum-stances the full utilization of summer sum-mer grass. In a number of western states It frequently happens that grass goes to waste because feeders are unwilling un-willing to pay the high prices asked for steers In the spring. The production of corn stover lo about twice that of grain straw, amounting to approximately 245,000,-000 245,000,-000 tons a year. A larger percentage (81.5) of this Is fed than of the straw, but the waste is nevertheless aston-. ishlng. For this, poor methods of feeding are largely responsible. By far the most economical method of handling corn Is by ensiling, but as a matter of fact only 8.1 per cent of the acreage was put In the silo In 1914, the year In which these Investigations were made. About 11 per cent was cut for greenfeed and 81 per cent allowed to mature for grain. It Is In the last portion of the acreage that the greatest waste occurs. Stripping the leaves from the stalks which are subsequently burned, removing the stalk above the top ear only, leaving the stalks to stand In the field unttt the loss of leaves and leaching have removed much of their fertilizing value, are all unthrifty methods. Furthermore, almost 4 per cent of the stover Is burned, as though, Instead of being a potential source of revenue. It was merely a nuisance to be gotten rid of as a percentage of stover that is thus thrown away Is as high as 7 or 8 per cent and the total loss to the country from the practice is estimated at nearly $15,000,000 a year. To obtain satisfactory results from the feeding of farm roughages, such as straw and stover, they must be combined with some form of concentrated concen-trated feed. At the present time large quantities of such feed, In the form of cottonseed meal and cake, corn, molasses, peanuts, and beans are exported ex-ported for the use of European feeders. feed-ers. If the straw and stover that are now wasted were employed to feed more cattle, these concentrates could be consumed at home. The result would be a tremendous saving not only in the cost of producing beef but In the cost of enriching the soil as well. In 1914, for example, about 1,-000,000 1,-000,000 tons of cottonseed meal half the total production were applied directly to the soil as fertilizer. If this had been fed to cattle instead, three-quarters of the fertilizing value would have been returned to the soil as manure. The loss of the other fourth would have been far more than counterbalanced by the profit on the meat produced economically by the meal and the necessary roughages. The efficient use of these and other feeds discussed in the report Is of the utmost importance to the American farmer, It is pointed out, because the day when close calculation In feeding was not necessary is, in all probability, probabil-ity, past. Hereafter it Is likely that success will depend upoti ability to put to the best use all available products. A greater knowledge cf what these products are and of the ways in which they can be fed will result In the elimination of enormous waste. |