Feeding farm animals

Front matter

Class : , t"t £^

Book . SS' __ Copyright N"*

COPVRIGHT DEPOSIT.

Part I

Part I embraces Chapters I-IX. Chapter I which is introductory discusses Live Stock and Successful Farming. Chapters II to IX discuss the laws or principles which govern the feeding of farm animals.

The successful feeding of farm animals is governed by certain laws or principles, some of which are reasonably well understood. It may be that there are other laws relating to this great subject that are not yet evolved, or are only in the process of evolution. The attempt to formulate those first referred to in regular sequence, and in the order of relative importance, will now be made. That this is no easy task in the present state of knowledge of the subject will be apparent from the statement that, so far as the author can ascertain, the attempt to enumerate these principles as such has never yet been made. The attempt, therefore, to formulate these laws in the manner stated may be so far impossible as not to preclude the necessity for some revision of the order of arrangement with the further rolling backward of the mists which, during long centuries, have shrouded this subject of subjects in practical agriculture.

As now understood by the author, the following are the chief of the laws or principles that govern successful feeding, and they are given in the order of relative importance. They are such as relate: (i) To selection in the animals to be fed ; (2) to the selection of foods for feeding them; (3) to development in the animals; (4) to habit in digestion and assimilation; (5) to keeping the animals at rest; (6) to prolonging the period of usefulness; (7) to pregnancy. These inexorable laws will now be discussed. Like the laws of the Medes and Persians, they can never be changed, except by Him who made them^ hence, the great importance of understanding them on the part of those who engage in keeping domestic animals.

In addition to these laws or principles is a long array of considerations that have each a more or less important bearing upon the successful feeding of animals. They have not the rank or force of laws or principles, and yet so nearly allied are some of them to the latter, that it is not easy to determine the border line between them. Each has a more or less important bearing on the successful feeding of animals. That none of them have quite the rank or force of laws is evidenced in the fact that neglecting them will not be followed by consequences so direful as those that would follow non-conforming to the requirements of laws or principles, and yet the feeder whose work is to be successful cannot afford to ignore any one of them in the prosecution of his work. These will be discussed in Chapters XVII. to XXI.

Chapter I. Live Stock And Successful Farming

In one respect the story of agriculture is the same in every country. History has shown that the relation between highest success in farming and the growing and fattening of live stock is so close as to be inseparable. It has further shown that the measure of the success attained is proportionate to the extent to which live stock is kept and maintained, and to the high quality of the same. It follows, therefore, that every legitimate encouragement should be given to the live stock industry, and that every legitimate effort should be made to deepen the farmer's interest in live stock production. Make it clear to the farmer that maintaining live stock on his farm will increase his profits and promote in many ways his best interests, and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, he will invest in the same. If the demonstration cannot be made clear to him that these results may be expected to follow where the work is properly conducted, he should not be urged to engage in such work. To make it clear that such results may be expected is the purpose of this chapter.

The following are prominent among the benefits that accompany the judicious keeping of live stock on the farm: (i) It increases profits; (2) aids greatly in the maintenance of fertility ; (3) benefits rotation ; (4) utilizes cheap foods; (5) insures cheaper transportation of farm products; (6) distributes labor more evenly throughout the year; (7) promotes industry in the farmer's household; (8) advances intelligence in the same; (9) tends to moor the young people in the farm home to farm life, and (10) is essential to the highest development in the nation.

Bearing on profits. — The relation between the growing of live stock and live stock products in any country is so close and intimate that the statement is safe which claims that the profits from agriculture increase or decrease with the increase or decrease of the live stock kept. The only exceptions, probably, are new areas with virgin soils, and limited areas with high natural adaptation to some special line of production in which fertility may be maintained for a time through the use of commercial fertilizers. An illustration is furnished in the growing of certain fruits and nut-bearing trees. The most prosperous rural communities in any state or country are those which devote the largest share of attention to live stock and live stock products ; as shown by the United States census of 1900, the profits per acre rose and fell with live stock values in the same. The relation between land values and the value of live stock kept upon the land, is close and intimate. In every state the highest land values are found almost invariably where live stock values are relatively the highest. Among the few exceptions are tide lands which may be enriched by sediment brought to them from the regulated overflow of tide waters. The richest agricultural countries in the world are those which are richest in live stock production. Results so uniformly invariable cannot be the outcome of accident. They are effects which are produced by certain causes always operative in live stock producing areas, under any system of mixed husbandry in which live stock is an important feature. The chief of the causes that produce these results are discussed in succeeding paragraphs.

Bearing upon fertility. — The extent to which the soils of the United States are being depleted of their fertility is probably the saddest feature in relation to their cultivation. This results first from the extent to which the elements of fertility are removed in the products sold from the farm, chiefly in form of grain and bread stuffs. The larger portion of these products are sold in lands where the fertility purchased in them is used in growing crops which compete with those sent to these countries from the United States. Thus, the United States becomes its own competitor. This suicidal policy may be compared with drawing on the principal deposited in a bank from year to year, until all is gone, rather than living on the interest.

As a result of this system, the evidences of a waning fertility are everywhere present in localities where the soil has been tilled during successive years. On the major portion of the lands in the New England, Atlantic and Middle States, good crops cannot now be grown without first dressing them with artificial fertilizers The rich lands of the middle West are giving indications of a gradually waning productiveness. Some of the mountain valleys of the far West are less productive than when they were first tilled. Continue the process of selling the food products grown upon the farm and a time will come when profitable crops cannot any more be obtained from the same.

Marked depletion in soil fertility is the greatest calamity, material in its nature, that can happen to any country. In some respects it is worse than famine, pestilence or war. When carried far enough it leads to abandoned farms. A region of abandoned farms is, in a sense, a wilderness, a desert. There are but three ways m which soil depletion may be prevented. These are, first, by maintaining equilibrium in fertility where crops are sold through applying commercial fertilizers; second, by stocking the land to its full capacity, and third, by combining the two systems. The occasional burying of green crops may also be introduced as an adjunct to each of these systems.

There are two strong objections to maintaining equilibrium in fertility through commercial fertilizers alone. These are first, the cost, and second, that they do not materially improve the physical condition of the soil.

O FEEDING FAR.M ANIMALS

They do not add to the humus in the soil, except through increase Avhich they cause in root production in the crops grown. The presence of humus is necessary to insure the most efficient action possible from the fertilizers, hence, in the absence of long continued applications of farmyard manure or of buried crops, they do not stimulate growth as they otherwise would.

When the crops grown are sold and shipped away from the farm, all the fertility which they contain of course goes with them. When these are fed to live stock and the fertilizer resulting is put back upon the land, it is possible in this way to restore to the land from, say 85 to 90 per cent of the fertilizing elements that were taken from it. The keeping of the live stock also necessitates, more or less, the growing of legumes to be fed to them, a process which tends to increase the nitrogen content in the soil, since these crops deposit in the soil more nitrogen gathered from the air than is sold in the meat, milk or wool made from feeding them.

In some instances, the fertility may be sufficiently maintained through keeping live stock only, at 'east for a long term of years. In other instances it may be maintained through the application of commercial fertilizers only. The former finds illustration in the rich lands of the prairie states, the latter, in the grass producing lands of the alluvial river bottom lands of the eastern states. On ordinary soils, however, fertility may be most evenly maintained by the moderate and judicious application of commercial fertilizers in conjunction with the judicious maintenance of live stock .

The equilibrium of fertility can thus be maintained and increased. The limit to such increase is the capacity and desire of those who cultivate the soil. With increase in fertility, the cost of growing crops will decrease, and there will be a proportionate increase in profits. To maintain such equilibrium in fertility is probably the most important question pertaining to the agriculture of this country.

Bearing upon rotation. — By rotation is meant the growing of diflferent classes of crops in succession. Crops differ more or less in their food requirements, that is, in the extent to which they draw on certain food elements in the soil. Some call for more nitrogen than others, and so of the different food elements, hence, when one crop is grown successively on the same land, the equilibrium or balance in fertility is disturbed, to the extent of reducing some of the elements of plant food in the soil so much that good crops of that class cannot longer be grown upon the land without it is in some way renewed. Other evils accompany such a process, as for instance, increase in certain forms of weed growth, increase in insects which prey upon the particular crop grown, and injury to the mechanical condition of the land through depleting it of humus.

These evils may be lessened, and in a great measure prevented, by practicing a judicious rotation. Some forms of rotation will not, in a marked degree, prevent or very much lessen the evils mentioned. Such is a rotation which consists in the growing of such crops only as the small cereals, wheat, oats, barley, rye, speltz and flax. This is owing to the general similarity of the food elements on which they feed, and to the fact that they all reduce the humus supply in the soil.

Rotation, in the true and helpful sense, implies that live stock shall be kept. Where kept, they consume the unsalable roughage grown, along with other food, and thus give back to the land each of the elements of fertility taken from it. They do this in proportion to the extent to which the food is fed which has been grown upon the farm, and to the care and promptness exercised in putting back again upon the land, the fertilizer resulting.

The fertilizer thus applied tends to maintain an equilibrium in the humus supply in the land. It does this through the admixing of the manure with the soil when cultivating it. The humus thus supplied improves the soil mechanically by making it more friable or firm, according to its texture. It also increases the power of the soil to hold moisture and the nominal elements thus applied improve the chemical condition of the soil while in process of decay. Should the question be asked, why may these results not be accomplished as well by growing hay to be marketed or by burying an occasional green crop, the answer is found in the soil depletion to which the first leads, and in the expense involved in the use of the land while the green crop is being grown.

Again, the keeping of live stock compels the maintenance of pastures on the farm. In this fact is found one of the most beneficial influences. Pasturing land does not always completely hinder soil depletion, but it greatly reduces it, since the product removed consists mainly of soil fertility used in making meat, milk or wool, as the case may be. The same is true of hay crops grown and fed on the farm.

Both pasture and hay crops lessen the labor and expense of cultivation in proportion as they are grown, but the saving in both respects is greater by far in pasture crops. The economy of maintaining pastures, and of properly maintaining them, has never been fully appreciated in American agriculture. The expense involved in maintaining fences to some extent lessens the economy in maintaining pastures, but in ordinary mixed farming their maintenance is an absolute necessity in order to properly rotate the crops.

The influence of pastures temporary in character in supplying the land with humus is very great. They furnish soil with sod or vegetable matter, which in its slow decay benefits the soil as described above. As a result, the crops which follow the breaking up of the pastures will probably be benefited for several years. Results similar in kind, but frequently less in degree, follow the breaking up of meadows. These usuallv have a less dense sod than pastures

Bearing on cheap foods. — On every farm more or less food is grown that is of but little value when sold in the open market. In some instances, it is quite unsalable, and yet, if fed to animals, its value would be considerable. It would seem correct to say that on many farms the revenue derived from thus utilizing what would otherwise be waste material, makes up the principal, if not the entire, of the net revenue derived from the farm.

On farms devoted mainly or exclusively to producing grain which is sold, the straw, the gleanings amid the stubbles, and the screenings of the grain are entirely lost to the farm where no live stock are kspt. The straw, much of which has a considerable feeding value, is burned. The weeds and the grass which grow amid the stubbles and which sheep could turn into good mutton, are not only practically valueless, but become a positive menace to clean farming. The numerous grain heads which fall to the ground whib the grain is being harvested, and which swine could turn into good pork, molder in decay. The screenings, consisting of small and shriveled kernels and weed seeds, become the property, and without any exchange, of those who buy the grain.

Where mixed farming is practiced, large quantities of fodder and low grade grain are grown, which can only be turned to good account by feeding it out to live stock. Such is straw of various kinds, hay that is coarse, weedy or much damaged by rain, corn stover, and grain that is so light or injured in harvesting that it grades low. Some of these products will, under some conditions, not pay the labor of marketing, others will be in a manner sacrificed because of the low price paid, and for some there is virtually no market, other than that which the farm furnishes. To the first class belong such products as oat and pea straw, which, when cut at the right season and well cured, have a higher feeding value than poor hay, To the second belong such foods as inferior or damaged hay and some kinds of coarse grains. Such hay may lO FEEDING FARM ANIMALS

have a considerable feeding value, and baney so stained by exposure as to be greatly discounted in price in the market will make as much and as valuable meat, milk or wool, and will sustain as much labor as barley that sells for the highest price. To the third class belongs corn stover, every acre of which is about equal to the produce of an acre of hay for feeding uses, and yet millions of acres of this valuable food go back to earth ungathered every year, because the production is in excess of the needs of the live stock kept.

There are also by-products from the dairy, the orchard and the garden, which usually can only be given a money value by feeding them on the farm. Such are skim milk, fallen fruit, unmarketable potatoes and the unsalable parts of vegetables. Nearly all kinds of field root crops also, to be profitable, must be fed upon the farm. The utilization of all these products in the way indicated, may alone constitute the difference between successful and unsuccessful farming.

Bearing on transportation. — The consumption of the food grown upon the farm through the medium of live stock invariably cheapens the cost of marketing the product, whether marketed nearby or through the medium of railroad transportation. A ton of hay, for instance, is marketed more cheaply, viewed from the standpoint of transportation, in the form of meat, milk, butter, cheese or wool than it can be through the medium of wagon or railroad transportation. As previously shown, many products grown upon the farm cannot be sold profitably or sold at all in the open market. (See p. 4.)

The cost of transportation frequently makes the shipment of bulky foods prohibitory. This is particularly true of foods other than concentrates, and is more especially true of transportation where more than one road carries the product to its destination, each road making its own rate. Because of the increased charges in the absence of a through rate and also for other reasons, it is, in

LIV1-: SIOCK AND SUCCESSFUL FARMING II

some instances, easily possible for the European farmer to buy American grown products and to feed them to live stock at a profit, while the American farmer who is distant from the place of production is unable to do so. The New England dairyman or feeder could turn to excellent account the cheap hay grown in the upper Mississippi basin, but the cost of transportation makes prohibitory the feeding of such food upon his farn. Notwithstanding, the New England factory employe is able to stand the cost of transporting the same hay virtually to the same market in the form of butter or cheese.

It is impossible to state with decision the saving in transportation by turning bulky foods, and even concentrates, into the still more concentrated forms of meat, milk and other products of the dairy. This wdl be influenced first by the relative reduction in weight effected, the relative advance in value of the finished product in a given market compared with the value of the materials used in making it, and relative freight charges on these products. The influence last p-entioned will not be discussed here since it is, to so great an extent, a varying factor.

The saving in weight effected by feeding foods in the form of animal products is proportionate to the bulkiness or the opposite of the foods fed ; to the relative nutrition in these in proportion to weight ; to the relative proportion of bulky foods and concentrates that are fed, and to the degree of the concentration in the animal product made from these foods. It is apparent, of course, that the greater the bulk, the less the nutrition ; the larger the proportion of bulky foods fed and the less concentrated the forms into which the foods are changed, the less relatively will be the saving efi"ected in transportation. While the amount of the saving eflfected on the basis of reduced weight from transforming food for animals into animal products cannot be given with precision, it may be stated approximately. To make 2 pounds of meat per day from a good i,ooo pound steer that is being fattened would call for say 30 pounds of good clover hay and grain, of which, say 12 pounds would be grain. Tl>e reduction in the weight to be transported as meat, compared with the food used in making it, would be 28 pounds or 93 per cent. To secure 22 pounds of milk per day from a dairy cow of similar weight during a prolonged period of feeding would call for say 36 pounds of the same kinds of fooil, of which say 8 pounds would be grain. The reduction in this instance is 14 pounds or 39 per cent. Suppose that the milk is made into cheese and that 10 pounds are allowed for i pound of cheese. The reduction in freight would be 33.8 pounds or 94 per cent. Suppose again the milk is made into butter, and that the 22 pounds of milk make i pound of butter, then the reduction in freight is 35 pounds or 97 per cent. It is thus apparent that the reduction in freight from turning food Into these respective products increases in the following order : Milk, beef, cheese and butter. It is further apparent that while butter, beef and cheese may be readily transported to long distances, the transporting of milk must always be circumscribed by distance, because of its relative weight in proportion to the food products from which it is made. That the degree of the advance in value of the finished product, as compared with the value of the foods used in making it has an important bearing on transportation, may be readily shown. Suppose, for instance, that a given amount of food is turned into butter. It has been shown that the weight to be transported is reduced by 97 per cent. But suppose that in the one instance, the butter sold at the point of destination for 20 cents per pound and in the other instance for 25 cents. The butter which brought the larger return was carried at the same rate as that which was sold at the lower price, which means, virtually, less cost in relation to the return for the weight transported.

It has also been shown that but for such transformation through feeding certain products, they could not be sold at all. (See p. 4.) The home market thus created, as it were, for foods otherwise unsalable, is one of the greatest benefits from stock keeping. It not only obviates waste which would otherwise be unavoidable, but it greatly increases profits. It also encourages the growth of many products that would not otherwise be grown, thus widening diversity in crop production.

Bearing on labor. — Stocking farms partially, or to the full extent of their capacity, has an important bearing on the question of farm labor. Thi"; bearing is proportionate to the extent to which the farm is stocked. It tends to the distribution of labor throughout the year, exercises an important influence on the relations between the farmer and the farmhand, and furnishes profitable work for every member of the family, according to the capacity of each.

The growing of live stock distributes labor throughout the whole year: (i) Through the diversity in crop production, which it necessitates; (2) through the ever present necessity of providing food for the animals kept ; and (3) through the labor entailed at certain seasons and with certain foods in preparing these for being fed.

Those farmers who grow but one kind of crop from year to year are only busy when growing that crop and marketing the same. Those who add to the number of crops grown and marketed directly, extend the period for labor in proportion to the increase in the number of the crops grown. Nevertheless, in the latter instance, there will be a period of idleness as well as in the former, though not so prolonged. But the keeping of live stock on arable farms compels the farmer to widen his rotation in order to provide the reqviisite foods for the same, and usually to the extent of making ample employment throughout the entire season of growth.

Animals, like the human family, must have sustenance, and they must have it during every day in the year.

14 "DEEDING FARM ANIMALS

Where they are to give the highest possible return, they must have food supplied them at certain intervals. The owner must in some way supply this food, and should do it as cheerfully and as faithfully as the uncomplaining mother prepares food from day to day for the household. Work horses need currying from day to day, cows must be milked at least twice a day and stables must be cleaned daily, thus entailing the blessed necessity of laboring more or less every day in the year.

The proper preparing of foods for winter feeding usually involves much labor. It may and does usually include such processes as grinding grain, shredding or chaffing fodders, slicing or pulping roots, soaking, steaming or boiling foods for certain classes of live stock, and blending foods so as to increase their efficiency when fed. The labor thus created gives employment, and where wisely directed, should prove remunerative.

Growing farm stock exercises a salutary influence, on the frequently vexatious question of farm labor : ( i ) By creating employment for farmhands through all the year; (2) by adding to the permanency of such labor, and (3) by the bearing which it has upon the price of labor.

When farm hands are only employed for a portion of the year, but one of two results must follow : they must remain idle through a part of th^ year, or secure employment in some other line of work, and at a season when employment is hard to get, that is, in the winter. Live stock call for more attention in winter than in summer, and thus necessitate the employment of labor at that season.

Permanency of employment must be given to the farm laborer who is to remain in this line of work, and who is to excel in the same. It is unreasonable to expect any one to continue in any line of work which furnishes employment for only a portion of the year. The best farm laborers, thus treated, must drift into other lines of work. Those only will remain whose unstable habits unfit them for permanency in any line of work.

LIVE STOCK AND SUCCESSFUL FARMING I5

Employment throughout the year will act as a regulator of farm wages, as men who work on a farm 12 months in the year can work for lower wages per month than those who work but eight months. Men who are given but eight months wages, which represents maintenance for one year, must get more per month than men who can maintain themselves by laboring all the year.

The maintenance of live stock furnishes profitable employment to all the members of the farmer's family, by giving work to each, according to the capacity and sex. The benefits resulting are: (i) Increased efficiency in laboring with the hands ; (2) the formation of industrious habits, and (3) increase in profits.

At a very early age members of the family may feed fowls, when a little more advanced, they can care for sheep and other small animals. Later, both boys and girls can aid in the milking, and still later, the boys take part in the more laborious work of preparing foods.

Each is exercised in using the hands in manual labor at an age when such labor is not only helpful to physical development, but when it is greatly helpful to future usefulness. The individual not trained to use the hands until matured can never become so expert in the use of the same as if such training had been given at an earlier period. The most skillful axemen of America are those who were exercised in swinging the axe from the time that they were first able to swing it.

The value of habits of industry will be discussed under the sub-division of the subject following. But it may be said in passing, that it is the habits of industry that are formed in early life in the members of the farmer's family that, more than anything else, aids in making them the foremost builders of the nation.

The members of the family in this way become wageearners at a relatively early period, which adds to the profits of the farm by increasing the resources without increasing the wage bill. While thus engaged, the members of the home have the great advantage of parental oversight, and they enjoy all the privileges which home furnishes. In the absence of live stock on farms, family labor can only be remunerative through the growing season. With live stock it becomes remunerative through all the year.