Transactions of RHASS Volume 1940 - Page 017
Image details
| Year | 1940 |
|---|---|
| Transcription |
|
| OCR Text |
I l ‘ "Milli" I ; {Hil‘l‘ll , (l l. m. 22 STOCK-FEEDING UNDER WAR CONDITIONS. As regards the gain in food value, allowance must first be made for a loss of dry matter—some of the substance of the straw dissolves in the soda and is run to waste. This amounts to nearly 20 per cent. In other words, a ton of straw containing fully 17 cwt. of dry matter will yield about 3% tons of wet straw-pulp, containing about 14 cwt. of dry matter. On the other hand there is a very marked gain in digestibility, and hence in food value. Dr S. J. Watson finds that average wheat straw, which has a starch equivalent of about 13 lb. per 100 lb. dry matter, yields a pulp with a starch equivalent of fully 40 lb. per 100 lb. dry matter. The corresponding figures for good oat straw, on a dry matter basis, are about 22 and fully 55. The total starch equivalent is thus increased, in the case of wheat straw, to fully two and a half times the original figure and, in that of good oat straw, is fully doubled. There is, of course, the further practical point that a very bulky food, with very limited uses on the farm, is converted into a fairly concentrated one which can be put to a variety of uses. The product from wheat straw is of about the same concentration (starch equivalent in relation to dry matter) as really good hay. The product from good oat straw is little inferior to beet pulp. The economics of the process will, of course, depend upon the value assumed for straw, on the market prices of feeding- stuffs and on the profits to be expected by keeping stock which otherwise, owing to shortage of feeding-stuffs, might have to be sold. If, however, we assume a flat-rate value of 2s. 6d. per unit of starch equivalent (implying that eats are worth about £8, 10s. per ton, beet pulp about £8, and good hay about £5), the calculations would be as follows :— AVERAGE WHEAT STRAW— Costs—— One ton straw . . . . . . . £1 8 0 Treatment (materials and labour) . . . . l 17 0 Total . . . . £3 5 0 Value— 14 cwt. dry matter as pulp at £5 per ton . . . 3 10 0 Balance profit . . . £0 5 0 GOOD OAT STRAW— Costs—— One ton straw . . . . . . . £2 10 0 Treatment (materials and labour) . . . . l 17 0 Total . . . . £4 7 0 Value—— 14 cwt. dry matter as pulp at £6, 17s. 6d. per ton . 4 l6 3 Balance profit . . . £0 9 3 STOCK-FEEDING UNDER WAR CONDITIONS. 23 It thus cannot be claimed that, at the prices assumed, the process would be highly profitable. But it does seem to offer a very valuable means of utilising a by-product, of reducing the farmer’s dependence upon his feeding-stuffs merchant, and of increasing production from our own soil. It may be noted that the processed straw contains a negligible amount of protein. Straw contains but little protein originally, and most of this is dissolved by the soda solution and is lost. The material, fed in reasonable amounts, is quite palatable to both cattle and sheep. Feeding cattle of ordinary size will readily clear up about 50 lb. of wet pulp (containing about 10 lb. of dry matter) per day. Some experience will be required in compounding rations with the new material, but as a general guide it may be suggested that a 10-cwt. feeding bullock might have 50 1b. swedes, 50 lb. wet straw pulp, 5 or 6 1b. hay, and 2&3 1b. of a high-protein cake such as decorticated earth-nut. This is calculated to produce a daily live-weight gain of 2 lb. Finally, it should be noted that trials with straw pulp in pig-feeding have so far, as might indeed have been expected, given unpromising results. At the Rowett Institute trials with wheat straw have shown that, whereas the untreated straw has a minus food value (the pig spending more energy in trying to digest the straw than it gets back from the small amount actually digested), the treated material does, so to speak, yield a small balance of profit to the animal. But the material would, it seems, do little except to satisfy the animal’s hunger. PROTEIN SUBSTITUTES. It is well known that one of the main difficulties encountered by Germany in her efiorts to achieve self-sufficiency has been in the matter of oils and fats. This is because the main oil-seeds of commerce—palm-kernel, coconut, cotton, earth- nut, &c.——are produced by tropical plants. Some progress has been made with the production of soya beans in South Germany, but, in the main, the solution has been to resort to the strictest rationing of soap, margarine, and other pro- ducts of vegetable oils. As a secondary result of the reduced supplies of oil-seeds there has been a great scarcity of oil- cakes, upon which the German farmers, like ourselves, used to rely for balancing their rations—tie, for getting the required proportion of protein or albuminoid. In Germany the scarcity of oil—cakes has been met in part, but only in part, by changes in cropping—by growing larger acreages of beans, lupins, and other pulse crops, and by ensiljng protein-rich herbage such as young grass or clovery |
| Title | Transactions of RHASS Volume 1940 - Page 017 |
