OCR Text |
Show Prickly Pear Cactus Is Satisfactory Stock Feed The common prickly pear cactus can be satisfactorily used as an emergency feed for live stock, past tests have shown, according to H. B. Osland, associate as-sociate in live stock investigations for the Colorado Agricultural College Experiment Ex-periment station. Plants should be singed with a blowtorch blow-torch or put through a chopper to break the sharp spines. Cattle do not like the young joints for some time after they are formed. When the joints swell out they are quite palatable. This green, fresh state Is the best. The prickly pears should be cut in autumn and can be used In the winter. This feed can be kept for a month or more after being cut without any material deterioration. Because of the high moisture content con-tent of prickly pears, feeding them alone will cause severe scours. The addition ad-dition of two pounds of cottonseed cake or three pounds of dry roughage daily will correct this trouble. A small cow can be maintained on 110 pounds of prickly pears plus 2 pounds of cottonseed cotton-seed cake. |