Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-10-18
WHEAT AS FEED.


d. Coburn. of the Kansas state board
of agriculture for the quarter ended
September 30, is a valuable publlca-
ton of over 200 pages of statistics for
the farmer. The report, besides cover
ing almost everything connected with
agricultural and stock operations IN
the state. deals largely with the ques-
ton of feeding wheat to stock. MIR.
Coburn has given much attention to
this subject, and he is thoroughly con-
WINGED that wheat as a feed, especially
at the present low price of the grain
and high price of pork, is a more eco
nomical feed than other grains. The
most interesting feature of the report,
therefore, is that relating to feeding
wheat to farm animals. its practice in
Kansas and its bearing upon agricu1-
ture and stock raising, as derived from
400 correspondents.
Of the "a ,837, 523 bushels of winter and
spring wheat raised in Kansas in 1898,
there has been used as feed for farm
animals 1859, 1923 bushels, or 1874 per
cent, Cowley and Sumner counties
leading, with 297, O44 and 4O7, 6O7 bush
els, respectively.
When fed whole perhaps more es-
pecia1ly to hogs, 25 per cent of it
passes the animals unmaSticated, and,
hence, undigested and unassimilated.
Three-fourths of the correspondents
reporting, representing fifty counties,
state that pound for pound, wheat is
superior to corn for fattening hogs
even with the one fourth unmasticat-
ED by to 35 per cent; the average of
these indicating a superiority over corn
of 16 per cent, while the average of
the other one-fourth of the reports,
representing twenty-six counties, indi-
Gates it is considered of less worth than
corn by - per cent.
To the question as to how much live
pork may be expected as fair return
per bushel of wheat fed to hogs, the
average of all the answers is eleven
pounds, and the variations from seven
pounds, in a single instance, to as
much as twenty pounds in one other;
but nearly all put the figures at or
above ten pounds.
Responses from eighty five counties,
having all the wheat raised except 49,
514 bushels, received within the last
ten days of September, this year, to in
quiries sent to 500 correspondents, ask
ing their estimates on the percentage
of the wheat crop of 1894, which will
be fed to farm animals, represent it as
30.4 per cent. of the wheat in those
counties: a total of 1924, 9S3 bushels, or
10 per cent. GAGS, $50 bushels) more
than the entire previous years crop SO
used.
In a general way these reports show:
In Kansas, under the conditions as
to product and prices of wheat and
corn existing in the years 1898, '94, '95,
wheat has become a very unusual and
very important factor in the grain
feeding of all classes of farm stock.
It is superior to corn, pound for
pound, as grain to produce healthful,
we'll balanced growth in young ami
mails.
Mixed with corn, oats or bran, it is
horses.
Fed to cows it is an exceptional milk
producer, and for that purpose corn is
| scarcely to be compared with it.
For swine of all ages it is healthful
and agreea bic food, giving generous
returns in both framework and flesh,
but fed whole, especially without soak
ing, is used at disadvantage. Ground
and made into Stops, it is inva1ua BILE
for sucking sows, and for pigs both
before and after weaving. Yet, while
the testimony is SO generally favorable
to wheat as a food for swine during
their growing period, the consensus of
opinion among shippers, dealers and
packers is that in finishing for the
market corn, or a large percentage OF
! corn, yields flesh of texture and quail
ity superior to that made from wheat
alone.
For cattle it has, at least as part of
their grain ration, a very high value,
which is much enhanced in the line OF
needed variety by mixing with corn,
and in a still greater degree by mixing
! judiciOusly with bran, oil cake or other
aIbuminous foods tending to balance
| the too carbonaceouS nature of the
clear wheat.
With corn and wheat approXimating
the same price per bushel, it is not un-
profitable nor wicked to feed the wheat:
yet, if it can be ground, rolled, crushed
or in some way broken at a total
cost not exceeding to z cents per
bushel, to feed it whole and dry is un-
wise.
IL can be ground at cost of cents
per bushel, and on a majority of Kan
sas farms for very much less.
If grinding is impractica bic, soaking
from twenty-four to thirty-six hours
| 1.-THE length of time depending some
what upon the weather and season. is
for various reasons deemed desirable
but is injudicious to any extent that it's
being moist facilitates swallowing