The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1911-04-28
Finds New Ration For Live Stock

Kansas City, Mo-By utilization or
a byproduct great additional wealth
may come to Western Kansas, Okla
homa, the Panhandle Of Texas and
New Mexico. That seems to be the
meaning OF the discovery by VI. M.
Sherman, manager or a $4,000 acre
ranch in Ellsworth county. Kan, OF
a means of utilizing the stalks OF
kafir corn says writer in local
paper. AS a rule the farmers have
been getting but small per cent Of
the nutrition in the stalks. In fact,
some have thought SO little Of them
that they have plowed them under af-
ter cutting or the kaffir heads. In
spite OF the loss growing out OF a
failure to use all of the nutrition in
kaffir stalks the crop has paid the
farmers and has helped to make them
prosperous.
But the waste in the stalks and
blades meant much to Mr.. Sherman,
who was feeding thousands OF head Of
live stock and was growing hundreds
OF acres OF kaffir corn annually.
Mr.. Sherman invented mill, which
grinds up kafir seed, stalk, blades
and all into meal which the stock
relishes and which uses all the nutri-
LlOH Ill D6Guy 5Ldlh dAu Dldu6 lie ny
product which Mr.. Sherman has seen
littering the feed yard and going to
waste is being converted into meat.
The kaffir corn is made into meal
similar in every way to alfalfa meal.
although not SO valuable as a feed.
1t has been estimated by agricultural
chemists that the value of the corn
stalks, leaves and husks on basis of
the nutrition contained was equal to
one-third of the value of the crop
raised on half as much as the corn.
In the use or the crop the grain is
used, but ordinarily on farms in the
Mississippi Valley the roughage In
some cases Is allowed to go to waste.
The loss In the aggregate is enormous.
A small dairy for ranch use Is main
tanned on the Sherman ranch, and it
has been found in practice that the
mich cows have maintained their flow
of milk as we'll when fed upon this
feed as IL given bran. During a De-
cember seven pounds a day for each
cow has been all of the grain ration,
with nothing else but common prairie
hay. The cows have done as well as
at any other previous time.
While no experiment has been made
with sheep, it is believed that this
ground kaffir cornmeal, stalk and all,
would not only be a maintenance "a
ton for sheep, but in all probability,
II not wholly, fattening ration.
Hogs have been fed on this meal the
entire winter and were given practi-
cally nothing else. However, it Is
thought better, probably, to feed al
falfa or some other feed part Of the
time. 1t may be said that there are
no hogs on the Sherman ranch that
are closely confined. Ii they have
not the run of large pastures they
have at least the run of lots several
acres in extent.
Mr.. Sherman has had several tests
made of kaffir cornmeal by chemists
OF the Kansas Agricultural College.
Here Is the result Protein, 4.40 per
cent; carbohydrates 1886 per cent;
fats, 2.36 per cent
A glance at these figures and those
given for other feed shows how well
kafir cornmeal stands with relation to
other feeding stuffs. Kaffir corn grain
alone does not show much larger per-
centages of nutritive values than
does the kaffir cornmeal with the
stalks and leaves ground up into a
meal.