The Stock-Feeder's Manual Part 7

Although the practice of cooking food has been advocated by several eminent feeders, it has been condemned by others. Mr. Lawes is not favorable to the cooking of food unless when it is scarce. The results of Colonel M'Douall's experiments go to prove that cattle can be more economically kept upon a mixture of raw and cooked foods than upon either raw or cooked fodder given separately. One meal of cooked food and two feeds of raw turnips gave better results than three feeds of raw turnips; whilst two cooked feeds and a raw one resulted in a loss.

The fermentation of food, if not the best, is certainly the cheapest mode of preparing it. If the process be not pushed too far the loss of nutriment sustained is inconsiderable. When a mixture of straw and roots is fermented, the hard fibres of the latter are, to a great extent, broken up, and the nutrient particles which they envelop are fully exposed to the action of the solvent juices of the stomach.

A great advantage in cooking or fermenting food is that the most rubbishy materials can be used up. Indeed, as a general rule, the better soft food is, the less the necessity for cooking it; but washed out hay and hard, over-ripened straw are of but little value, except when cooked and given in combination with some agreeably-flavored substance.

VALUE FOR FEEDING PURPOSES OF VARIOUS FOODS.[22]

+--------------------------------------------------------+ KEY: A.--Starch, Sugar, &c. B.--Oil, Starch, &c., computed as Oil. C.--Weight. D.--Value. E.--Value of Nitrogen, Phosphoric Acid, and Potash. F.--Deduct Nitrogen for perspiration. G.--Net Value for Manure. +---------------+------------------+-------------------------------------+ COST. 100 LBS. CONTAIN. +----------+-------+------+-------+-------+--------------+ MATERIAL. Nitrogen. Per Per 100 +------+-------+ ton. lbs. Oil. A. B. C. D. +---------------+----------+-------+------+-------+-------+------+-------+ s. d. s. d. lbs. lbs. lbs. lbs. d. Meadow-hay 4 0 0 3 7 268 3975 2463 148 1062 Wheat-straw 1 15 0 1 7 050 320 1850 042 30 Swedish Turnips 4 10 0 4 0 20 600 350 240 1728 Oil-cake 9 6 8 8 4 120 380 330 50 360 Beans 9 6 8 8 4 20 420 2530 445 320 Indian Meal 9 6 8 8 4 70 600 400 225 1620 Carob, or Locust Bean 9 6 8 8 4 676 570 350 064 375 +---------------+----------+-------+------+-------+-------+------+-------+

+---------------+---------------------------+----------------------------+ 100 LBS. CONTAIN. +-------------+-------------+----------+-------+---------+ MATERIAL. Phosphoric Potash. Acid. +------+------+------+------+ C. D. C. D. E. F. G. +---------------+------+------+------+------+----------+-------+---------+ lbs. d. lbs. d. s. d. d. s. d. Meadow-hay 090 135 150 450 1 4-1/2 2-1/12 1 2-1/4 Wheat-straw 014 021 065 216 0 5 1/2 0 5 Swedish Turnips 080 120 225 675 2 1-1/4 3-1/2 1 9-3/4 Oil-cake 225 337 175 525 3 8-1/2 7-1/4 3 1-3/4 Beans 086 129 111 333 3 0-1/2 6-1/2 2 6 Indian Meal 019 028 017 051 1 5 3-1/4 1 1-3/4 Carob, or No a.n.a.lysis Locust Bean of ash. say 5-3/4 -- 0 5 +---------------+--------------------+------+----------+-------+---------+

_Bedding Cattle._--Instead of wasting straw in bedding cattle, it would be much better to pa.s.s it through their bodies. If straw must be used for litter, let it be employed as economically as possible. Good subst.i.tutes, wholly or in part, for straw bedding may be found in sawdust, ashes, tan and ferns. Leaves of trees if procurable in quant.i.ty const.i.tute an excellent litter.

SECTION II.

THE SHEEP.

The management of sheep varies greatly--depending upon the breeds of the animal, the localities in which they are reared and fattened, and various economic conditions. The tupping season varies of course with the country: in Ireland it commences about the middle of September and lasts for two months; in England and parts of Scotland, the season is about a month earlier. The best kinds of sheep admit of being very early put to breed. Both ram and ewe are ready for this purpose when about fifteen months old. One ram is sufficient for about 80 ewes. The breeding flock should be in a sound, healthy condition, and the ram ought to be as near perfection as possible. The condition of the sire ought to be good, but at the same time it is not desirable to have him over fat. The more striking indications of good health in the sheep are dry eyes, red gums, sound teeth, smooth, oily skin, and regular rumination. The color of the excreta should be natural.

_Breeding Ewes._--After the tupping season, which generally lasts for a month, the sheep are usually put on a pasture, which need not be very rich. In cold situations ample shelter should be afforded to the breeding flocks; and in severe weather they should, if possible, be removed to sheds. When snow covers the ground, the animals must be supplied with turnips, or cooked food of some kind. At such time a little oil-cake will be found very useful.

_Yeaning._--In March the yeaning season sets in; and as this time approaches, the food of the animals should be improved, and the greatest care must be taken of them. The shepherd should be unceasing in his watchfulness, frequently examining every individual animal. The lambing, if possible, ought to take place in sheds, or some covered place.

_Rearing of Lambs._--Delicate lambs require great care. Very weak ones often require to be hand fed. Should a mother die, her offspring may be placed with another ewe; on the other hand, should a lamb perish, its mother may be appointed to rear one of another ewe's twins (if such be available). The ram lambs, not intended for breeding purposes, are subjected to a necessary mutilation when they are about three weeks old.

If this operation be performed later, there is great danger that fatal inflammatory action may set in; on the other hand, a lamb much younger than three weeks is hardly strong enough to bear the pain of the operation. The tails of the lambs are shortened about the same time; but it would be better in the case of the rams not to perform both operations on the same day. These operations are best performed during moist or cloudy weather; if they must be done on frosty or stormy days, the lambs should be kept under shelter for two or three days, as otherwise the cold might induce inflammation. The lambs remain with their mothers for about four months, after which they are weaned, and put upon a good pasture. When the herbage is poor, oil-cake, say 1/4 lb.

daily, or some other nutritious food, should be used to supplement it.

During the summer and part of the autumn the young stock, as a rule, subsist upon gra.s.s; but many flock-masters give them other kinds of food in addition. As winter approaches, the young sheep on tillage farms receive soft turnips, and sometimes a little hay or straw. The allowance of oil-cake may be increased to 1/2 lb., or if corn be cheap, it may be subst.i.tuted for the oil-cake. After Christmas Swedish turnips are used.

Mr. Mechi gives the following information on the subject of rearing lambs during a season when roots are scarce:--

Two hundred lambs, which cost 22s. 6d. each on September 12th, were kept on leas and stubble until November 3rd, then on turnips until December 19th, when fifty of them were drafted to another flock getting a little cotton-cake. On the 3rd of February fatting commenced with linseed-cake in addition to cut Swedes. On the 7th of April the fifty tegs were put on rye with mangels, and they were sold on the 4th of May at 61s. each.

The remaining 150 lambs were wintered as stores at little cost, on inferior turnips uncut; they were put on rye from March 8th till May 4th, when they were valued at 48s. each.

The district just referred to became so exhausted of its stock, that at some of the later fairs the number of lambs and of ewes exhibited was less than one-fourth of the average. But in Ess.e.x, on six adjoining farms, including that from which I write, the number of sheep wintered has been greater than these heavy lands ever carried before. This has been effected by the extension of a system of management often practised on heavy land, that of eking out a scanty supply of green food by a liberal allowance of straw, chaff, and grain; which happily were good in quality, as well as plentiful and low in price in 1864.

By these means we were enabled last winter to keep 1,500 sheep on about 650 acres of arable, and 350 acres of dry upland pasture--chiefly park surrounding a mansion. The arable land does not very well bear folding in winter, as a preparation for spring corn. Neither climate nor soil are favorable to turnips, and notwithstanding our efforts in a.s.sisting Nature, our crops of turnips, rape, or Swedes, are never first-rate, and sometimes very bad. Strong stubbles, good beans, clover-seed, and mangel, are the specialities of the locality, and they indicate heavy land, corn-growing, and yard-feeding. Sheep have been generally "conspicuous by their absence," though even the heavy-land farmer is glad to winter a yard of them instead of cattle, that he may keep some, at least, of the stock that pays best.

In the autumn of 1864 our root crops consisted of some white turnips and rape, eaten by the ewes in September, and of a very bad crop of mangel, the whole of which was reserved for the ewes at lambing-time. In this predicament we wintered about 1,000 half-bred lambs, more than 400 ewes, and some fatting sheep.

All, except the fatting sheep, were folded on the stubbles, and allowed a daily run on the park of about an hour for each flock.

The freshest gra.s.s was reserved for the ewes, and a very meagre bite remained for the lambs; in fact, except for a few weeks in autumn, the parks afforded them little or nothing except exercise and water.

The flocks were divided between three separate farms, and their food was prepared at the respective homesteads. The treatment was in every respect similar; we shall therefore only notice in detail the management at one farm.

The following details are taken from our "Live Stock Book:"--

EXTRACTS FROM STOCK BOOK.

_Lambs._

Payments. Remarks.

_November 4th, 1864._ s. d.

352 lambs, cost at date, 30s. 9-1/2d. each 542 2 3 (a) _Cost of keeping 24 weeks to April 21, 1865_:-- (b) Corn and cake, as per granary book 245 16 9 (c) Cutting 25 tons of chaff, at 6s. 7 13 0 (d) Grinding 96 qrs. 6 bshls. of corn, at 9d. 3 12 6 Attendance, at 19s. 10d. per week 23 16 0 (e) Horse labor, at 6s. per week 7 4 0 Coal, 3s. 2d. per week 3 16 0 (f) Use of 21 troughs, at 3d. each per month 1 11 6 (g) Use of 180 hurdles, at 1d. each per month 4 10 0 1-1/2 cwt. of rock salt 0 4 6 ========== 840 6 6

Remarks.

(a) Total cost of keeping 352 lambs for 24 weeks, 298 4s. 3d.

(b) Cost per head, 16s. 11d.

(c) Cost, food only, 14s. 11d.

(d) Value of the manure, reckoned at one-fifth the cost of the corn and cake, 49 3s. 4d.

(e) Cost of the lambs, per head, 2 7s. 8d.

(f) Value of manure, per head, 2s. 10d.

(g) No charge made for the straw-chaff eaten on the land.

The tegs would probably have been sold at a profit in April; they were, however, put on gra.s.s and clover, and were fattened in the summer.

_September 29th._--352 lambs in the parks, on a little cotton-cake and some oats, until November 4th, when they were folded on a wheat stubble. Gave them 5 bushels of meal daily, mixed with 468 lb. of straw chaff. Cost 3-1/2d. each per week for meal.

_December 20th._--Increased the food to 6-1/2 bushels of meal and 1 bushel of oil-cake.

_December 18th._--

lb.

2-3/4 bushels of maize crushed and boiled 143 4-1/2 bushels of mixed meal 200 1 bushel of oil-cake 50 --- 393 ===

Cost 5-1/2d. per week for corn and cake; chaff, 2-1/4 lb. each, between these and the ewes, the lambs eating rather less than 2 lb. each.

Eight pounds of rock-salt licked up by the 352 lambs per week.

_January 23rd._--The food was increased to 7-1/2 bushels of meal, 2 bushels of oil-cake, and 2 bushels of rape-cake.

Mixture of Corn.

Wheat 4 parts.

Barley 4 "

Oats 2 "

Maize 4 "

Cost per stone (14 lb.) s. d.