The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-04-12

L. Some Important Considerations in Feeding Live
Stock.

1t Is n1gnly important LudG IO uAsAuu "Ao
feeds live stock should have a thorough knowledge
of the leading principles which govern it, and of
the various considerations which have a bearing
upon it. Unless one knows how to do things he
cannot expect a very successful outcome. So if
we do not give heed to known facts that have to
do in the control or successful feeding and man
agement of farm animals, we cannot expect those
animals to make much progress. We should always
bear in mind that in successful feeding there must
not only be favorable progress in gains from week
to week and from month to month, but these gains
must be economically made. One of the most i'm
portant factors that is concerned with successful
feeding of live stock, is that animals must possess
quality if they are to be fed with marked success,
and by quality we mean what might generally be
included in the consideration of the breeding, the
form, and the handling of the individual Ami
mails lacking in quality will usually be fed unprof-
itably in proportion to the degree to which the lack
is present. We are feeding a large number of cat
tie, sheep and hogs in our State, but they lack
quality. Without quality early maturity is not
possible, and there is no profit in feeding cattle
even on poor lands and cheap pasturage for three
or four or five years. Our State will blossom as
a rose indeed when we combine our live stock with
our other kinds of farming, and when we secure
animals possessing quality and early maturity. 1t
is necessary in the successful feeding of farm an
imals that they have food sufficient for a gradual
and constant growth. Over feeding is just as
harmful as underfeeding. 1t is already recog-
nized by every practical feeder that where stag
nation occurs before the animals have matured
that the feeding quality of the animals is affected
adversely. This arises, in part at least, from dis
arrangement of the equilibrium of the system
which permanently impairs the vigorous action of
sonno or oil of tho pouorc of dioacfion The -
rested condition of growth and vigor is in proper
ton to the length of the period of stagnation due
to undertaking and to it's proximity to the birth
period. Now the powers of digestion can be af-
fected, especially while the animal is still young,
by over-feeding in just the same way that under
feeding does. One specially finds bad effects by
the 1over-feedlng of breeding stock and of dairy
calves. And then again we find another error in
feeding material that do not furnish the proper
nutrients and In the proper balanced form. For
that reason the mixed diet is always superior to
one composed of a single feeding stuff. It is sell
dom found that any one food will contain within
itself the elements of the perfect food. It is true
that new milk for young animals, and succulent
grasses for older ones are exceptions to this.
They are of course impractical to be fed all the
time, and hence if we want a successful food for
our live stock we must make it a rule to provide
the proper feeding stuffs in just the same way that
we make it a rule to provide proper fertilizer ma
terlals for our cotton, corn, or tobacco when they
are started on their way from planting to ma
turity.
ALI this means that we must recognize at first
that the feeding and growing of farm animals
cannot be done by guess, nor can it be done in a
halt-hearted way. It requires experience, love for
the work, and the determination to make a success