The Stock-Feeder's Manual / the chemistry of food in relation to the breeding and feeding of live stock

by Sir Charles Alexander Cameron

STRAW AND HAY.

Straw.—At the present time, when the attention of the farmer is becoming more and more devoted to the production of meat, it is very desirable that his knowledge of the exact nutritive value of the various feeding substances should be more extensive than it is. No doubt, most feeders are practically acquainted with the relative value of corn and oil-cake—of Swedish turnips and white turnips; but their knowledge of the food equivalents of many other substances is still very defective. For example, every farmer is not aware that Indian corn is a more economical food than beans for fattening cattle, and less so for beasts of burthen. Locust-beans, oat-dust, malt-combings, and many other articles, occasionally consumed by stock, have not, as yet, determinate places assigned to them in the feeder's scale of food equivalents.

The points involved in the economic feeding of stock are not quite so simple as some farmers, more especially those of the amateur class, appear to believe. There are many feeders who sell their half-finished cattle at a profit, and yet they cannot, without loss, convert their stock into those obese monsters which are so much admired at agricultural shows. The complete fattening of cattle is a losing business with some feeders, and a profitable one with others. Stall-feeding is a branch of rural economy which, perhaps more than any other, requires the combination of "science with practice;" yet how few feeders are there who have the slightest knowledge of the composition of food substances, or who are agreed as to the feeding value, absolute or relative, of even such well-known materials as oil-cake, straw, or oats! "It is thus seen how inexact are the equivalents which are understood to be established for the different foods used for the maintenance of the animals. It is equally plain, when we reflect on the different methods pursued for the preservation of the animals, that we are still far from having attained that perfection towards which our efforts tend. Visit one hundred farms, taken by chance in different parts of the country, and you will find in each, methods directly opposite—a totally peculiar manner of managing the stalls; you will see, in short, that the conditions of food, of treatment, and of hygiene, remain not understood in seven-eighths of rural farms."^{[!--28--][28]}

The straws of the cereal and leguminous plants are a striking illustration of the erroneous opinions and practices which prevail amongst agriculturists with respect to particular branches of their calling. The German farmers regard straw as the most valuable constituent of home-made fertilisers, and their leases in general prohibit their selling off the straw produced on their farms. Yet chemical analysis has clearly proved that the manurial value of straw is perfectly insignificant, and that, as a constituent of stable manure, it is chiefly useful as an absorbent of the liquid egesta of the animals littered upon it. As food for stock, straw was at one time regarded by our farmers as almost perfectly innutritious; some even went so far as to declare that it possessed no nutriment whatever, and even those who used it, did so more with the view of correcting the too watery nature of turnips, than with the expectation of its being assimilated to the animal body. Within the last few years, however, straw has been largely employed by several of the most intelligent and successful feeders in England, who report so favorably upon it as an economical feeding stuff, that it has risen considerably in the estimation of a large section of the agricultural public. Now, even without adopting the very high opinion which Mechi and Horsfall entertain relative to the nutritive power of straw, I am altogether disposed to disagree with those who affirm that its application should be restricted to manurial purposes. Unless under circumstances where there is an urgent demand for straw as litter, that article should be used as food for stock, for which purpose it will be found, if of good quality, and given in a proper state, a most economical kind of dry fodder—equal, if not superior to hay, when the prices of both articles are considered.

The composition of straw is very different from that of grain. The former contains no starch, but it includes an exceedingly high proportion of woody fibre; the latter is in great part composed of starch, and contains but an insignificant amount of woody fibre. Dr. Voelcker, the consulting chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society of England, and Dr. Anderson, chemist to the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, have made a large number of analyses of the straws of the cereal and leguminous plants, the results of which are of the highest interest to the agriculturist. In the following tables the more important results of these investigations are given:—

ANALYSES OF STRAW, BY DR. VOELCKER.
	No. 1.	No. 2.	No. 3.	No. 4.	No. 5.	No. 6.	No. 7.	No. 8.	No. 9.	No. 10.
	Wheat, just ripe and well harvested.	Wheat, over ripe.	Barley, dead ripe.	Barley, not too ripe.	Oat, cut green.	Oat, cut when fairly ripe.	Oat, over ripe.	Bean.	Pea.	Flax Chaff.
Water	13·33	9·17	15·20	17·50	16·00	16·00	16·00	19·40	16·02	14·60
Albumen, and other protein compounds:—
a. Soluble in water	1·28	0·06	0·68	}5·73	5·51	2·62	1·29	1·51	3·96	}4·75
b. Insoluble in water	1·65	2·06	3·75		2·98	1·46	2·36	1·85	5·90
Oil	1·74	0·65	1·36	1·17	1·57	1·05	1·25	1·02	2·34	2·82
Sugar, mucilage, extractive matters, &c. (soluble in water)	4·26	3·46	2·24	}71·44	16·04	10·57	3·19	4·18	8·32	8·72
Digestible woody fibre and cellulose	19·40	}82·26	5·97		26·34	30·17	27·75	2·75	17·74	18·56
Indigestible fibre &c.	54·13		66·54		24·86	31·78	41·82	65·58	42·79	43·12
Inorganic matter:—
a. Soluble	1·13	1·29	2·88	}4·52	5·76	3·64	2·26	2·31	2·72	4·07
b. Insoluble	3·08	1·05	0·38		0·94	2·71	4·08	1·40	2·21	3·36
	100·00	100·00	100·00	100·00	100·00	100·00	100·00	100·00	100·00	100·00
⁂ This table contains in a condensed form all theresults of Voelcker's analyses of the straws which are given in his paperpublished in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England,vol. xxii., part 2. 1862.
Nos. 5, 6, and 7 were analysed shortly after being cut, when theycontained a high proportion of water. They have, therefore, beencalculated to contain 16 per cent. of moisture so as to arrive ataccurate relative results.

ANALYSES OF STRAW, BY DR. ANDERSON.
	Wheat from East Lothian.		Wheat from Kent.	Barley from East Lothian.		Barley from Kent.	Sandy Oat from Kent.		Oat from Sea level, East Lothian.	Oat from 850 feet above Sea level, East Lothian.	Oat from Mellhill, Inchture, Scotland.	Oat from Kent (White one side.)
Water	10·62	10·93	11·15	11·44	11·15	11·10	11·70	10·95	12·60	11·28	11·70	10·55
Flesh-formers—
Soluble	0·86	0·37	1·37	1·42	0·39	0·66	0·40	1·03	0·67	0·92	0·95	0·33
Insoluble	0·51	1·12	1·00	1·54	1·12	1·98	0·93	0·43	0·38	0·39	1·21	0·33
Oil	0·80	1·00	1·50	0·97	0·88	1·05	1·45	0·77	1·25	1·36	1·60	1·00
Respiratory elements—
Soluble	2·68	6·68	5·26	3·22	6·11	4·56	10·12	6·90	7·16	7·42	12·01	6·23
Insoluble	44·88	36·43	38·79	35·56	38·38	27·95	33·52	34·77	24·28	29·55	23·35	30·95
Woody fibre	32·88	34·78	35·01	41·34	36·62	47·53	35·36	38·73	48·49	44·40	45·27	47·40
Ash	6·20	8·04	6·32	4·21	5·62	4·85	6·36	6·28	5·11	5·07	3·95	3·62
	99·43	99·35	100·40	99·70	100·27	99·68	99·84	99·86	99·94	100·39	100·14	100·41
⁂ This table is compiled from Dr. Anderson's paper inthe Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotlandfor March, 1862.