The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1910-10-13

North Dakota Farmer Ia OF particular
importance this year when there IL
such a shortage of roughage. It. gives
information that will be of value to
all who have live stock to feed:
Ration for Straw or Roughaos.
Will you kindly advise me through
this months issus Of the North d.
kotA Farmer The best WY to feed
LAST zy,af's wheat straw. - that isi
al the ~roughags, W. have available.
~ our hay crop was an entire failure.
Hay, . small quantity q this season'e
wheat and oat array, which We destHs
TO reserve for spring feeding. What
ehonld w. feed With; The wheat straw
to mako = satisfactory ration? Tho
old wheat straw 10 mostly bright ex.
espt on the outside Of the stack which
10 westher-beatsu.
You win confer 4 Great favor on
many readers By giving " intorma-
ton on this point.
J. H. w.. Dresden, N. D.
Answered by Prof. }. n. Shepherd.
Dat straw is considered the best of
the cereal straws for feeding live
stock. Wheat straw Is very much
poorer. Wheat straw does not have
the palatable, digestible chaff which
oat straw carries and is considerably
more woody besides. Flax straw on
the average is as good If not better,
than oat straw for feeding. The
stems themselves are very woody, but
usually there is some immature fax
seed left in the straw and frequently
some ripe fax seed, which probably
accounts for it's high rating as a feed
for livestock. Immature fax that has
been frosted or hailed down and
grown up second time should be
carefully cured aud stacked for win
ter roughage this season. It makes
splendid feed If used with little pre-
caution. Wherever a supply of fax
straw is given to stock, they
should be gradually accustomed to
it before being allowed all that they
, will eat If there is any considerable
amount of flax seed in it. There are
always a few glutonous animals in
the herd or flock that will eat little
besides the seed If they can sort it
out from the straw. They can eat
large quantities of it If they have been
gradually accustomed to it without
causing serious trouble. 1t Is very
heavy and oily and on that account is
apt to cause digestive troubles II
fed in much quantity before the anil
mails have become used to it. -,
The N. D. station did consider
able amount of work. in horse feeding
a number Of years ago and made ex-
tensive trials; with oat straw a. COM
pared with hay for roughage.o In the
trial. i found that some horses did
about as we'll az, :, they did on ha~.
While others were very much harder
to carry chiefly. because their appe-
titles for .roughage were too light to
cause them to eat enough of it.. Aside
from those dainty animals had little
trouble in keeping them up on oat
straw as roughage. 49,
The oat straw that~I used was that
of a normal season which was coars-
er and more woody than that which
has been obtained, this wear. The
straw from this years crop in this
part Of the state Is bright and fine
stemmed, facts which add to its feed
ing value very materially.
The trial made at the college con-
sisted of a period Of sixty days feed
ing with oats as the grain ration
against similar period with oats and
hay, and sixty DAYS feeding with
| mixture of half and half; bran and
shorts by weight with hay compared
with sixty days feeding bran and
shorts with oat straw
During the first thirty DAYS winter
conditions were present and the
horses were used only about enough
for good exercise. During the Sec
ond thirty days they were worked at
narrowing, discing and seeding and
had nearly all Of that work the last
half of the month.
The horses receiving oats and hay
as a ration required nine and one
third pounds of oats with hay to car
ry them, while those on oats andstraw
consumed eleven and one-half pounds
Of oats per day. During the thirty
days that they had light work, the
horses on hay gained 176 pounds and
the three on straw 1859 pounds. Dur
ing the thirty days when they had
heavy work one-half of the time,
those on hay lost $40 pounds and
those on straw 345 pounds. NJ 4