Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-09-30
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
: - . 4
MONEY VALUE OF OATS FED
TO DAIRY COWS.
Reducing the Cost of Heavy Rations-
Check Reins and BIinders-IIow
to Dehorn-Farm Notes
and Household Helps.
Oats as IA Forage Crop.

of the experimental farm at Madison,
Wis. read u valuable paper at the
Round Up institute at Portage on the
above subject From the same we
take the following extract;
In an experiment made at our own
station with hogs fed on oats and
corn meal in different proportions ii
was found that while the ration was
composed of one-third ground oats
and two-thirds corn meal tho cost OF
making n pound OF gain at the prices
quoted was -. Z cents. Let US group
the cost of tho different rations to-
gether
Cost OF one pound of gain with oats
alone 3. / cents
Cost OF one pound OF gain with corn
meal ). 6 cents
Cost OF one pound of gain with I
oats cornmeaL 81 cents.
1t is apparent from the study OF the
above figures that oats, when intelli-
/ gently used. will serve an admirable
! purpose in reducing the cost of heavy
rations intended for fattening pur-
poses. The next and last phase OF
the gain side of the question that
shall discuss Is the actual money
value OF the oat when fed TO dairy
cows as compared with bran.
The often repeated and sometimes
wild assertions made as to the rela-
tive value OF bran and oats make it
necessary for the station to set about
obtaining some definite Information
on the subject As the result OF these
experiments with COWS on full milk it
was found that when fed pound for
pound the cows invariably did better
on oats, gong up when the oats were
fed and down when put on bran. This
result was shown to have been pro-
duced from about equal quantities of
food materials in the two cases The
oats therefore seemed 10 have a higher
nutrltive effect with mich cows than
had bran. When the financial aspect
of the case is considered. it will be
seen that for the present market prices
of the two feeds bran at IL per ton
and oats at rs cents per bushel the
former is the cheaper feed Of the two.
The conclusion reached by the results
OF the two experiments is that
where the difference between these
feeds is greater than 10 per cent in
favor of bran, it is not good economy
to feed oats to mich cows in prefer
ence TO bran. Or when bran Is SELL
ing for 81 per ton. oats are worth
nearly % cents per bushel for feeding
purposes to mich cows. These
figures do not take into consideration
the manurial value OF the two foods
nor the additional cost TO the farmer
of the bran over and above the mar
ket prices by the time it is distributed
on his farm. This item of interest
will be Offset by the cost of grinding
the oats. which must be added to that
side of the question. Thus far we
have confined the discussion OF the
value OF the oat to those that regard
the gain only as being worthy OF con.
sideration and it appears TO me that
right here is where the most serious
mistake is male.
H. instead of leaving the crop to
stand until dead ripe in order TO bind
up at once as is usually done we
should harvest it in the milk stage
using preferably self-rake reaper
II that implement is not at hand. use
q mower and give the crop the same
Intelligent care that we would give a
grass or clover crop The result
would be that we would not only save
the cost of threshing an item OF ex-
pense that amounts. all things con-
sidered to nearly one-fifth of the
price usually obtained for the grain.
but we would have hay that con-
tains about twenty pounds more OF
dlgestible nutrients than does clover
hay and about II per cent more than
is contained in timothy. Moreover.
the grain in the oat hay does not
reach the animal in excessive quanti-
ties, and by reason of it being mixed
with the straw is we'll masticated In
this way, another item of expense for
grinding is obviated. which is not
the case when the grain and straw are
fed separately.