The Ronan pioneer., 1917-11-23
STRAW VALUABLE
AS WINTER FEED
FED WITH SMALL AMOUNT OF
GRAIN SUFFICIENT FOR
WINTERING.
Animals at Experimental Station
Carried Through Winter With No
Other FOod-Old Plan of Burning
Straw Stacks Loses Valuable For.
age For Farmer.

A college professor, fresh from a
noted eastern university, came to
Montana several years ago to lecture
on cattle feeding at the farmers in
stitutes. At one of the first meet
ings farmer inquired whether straw
was of any value as feed for stock.
mo sir" replied the learned pro-
fessor, "your cattle will starve SOON
er when fed straw than when given
nothing at ALL" and he went on to
explain how the straw did not con-
tain enough calories or food units
to equalize the energy used up by
the animal in chewing and digesting
it. When he had finished another
farmer arose and addressed him
thusly: Professor, your theory
SOUNDS fine but it's no good. My
breeding cattle have had nothing but
straw for the last two winters and
they ain't dead yet"
The farmer was right. Straw alone
will carry cattle through the win
ter and when supplemented by a
small amount of some more concen-
trated feed the straw pile becomes
very valuable source of roughage.
To be sure, it is poor in crude pro-
tein and fat and runs high in woody
fibre and cellulose and it is not to
be recommended as the ideal feed
for working horses, fattening CATTLE
or heavy milking dairy cows On the
other hand, it mixes very we'll with
other feeds for carrying idle stock
through the winter and used in this
way will greatly reduce the feed
bill.
Experiments Show Value.
The various experiment stations
no longer look upon straw as USE
less for feeding purposes but in
stead many of them are conducting
experiments to show how it can best
be used.
The Indiana station reports that
oat straw proved as satisfactory as
clover hay for wintering stockers
which in addition were given silage,
shelled corn and cottonseed meal. In
ten different trials, the straw SEEM
ed to satisfy the desire for dry rough
age and the animals made longer
gains at less cost and sold for fully
as much as those fed clover hay.
At the Illinois station beef steers
put on a gain of a pound day on
ration of 1877 pounds of corn silage
and 9.6 pounds of oat straw and 3.5 |
pounds of clover hay.
Tests at Bozeman.
At our own experiment station at
Bozeman, cattle were carried through
the unusually hard winter of last
year with no other feed than straw.
Thirty head of high grade beef cat
tie were put into two lots. Lot l was
on straw alone while Lot 2
was fed about nine pounds of hay
per head in addition to straw at will.
All the animals in both lots came
through the winter in fair shape al
though those receiving the hay were
in higher conditions than those fed
On straw alone. The COWS did not
freshen until six weeks to two
months after going on grass and no
difference could be noticed in the
strength and weight of the calves
that could be attributed to winter
feeding.
The department. of agriculture rec
ommends the following rations for
beef stuff: Straw 10
pounds, silage 20 pounds, cottonseed
meal Il pounds. In many parts of
Montana beet pulp Or beet tops could
replace the silage and alfalfa could
be added, simply using straw to re-
place portion of the alfalfa.
Or all the straws, oat is the most
followed by barley, wheat
and rye, and spring wheat is of more
value than the stiffer winter wheat
With the price of hay soaring sky
ward, straw should command good
price this coming winter. Last spring
single stacks sold for 5000 and were
hard to get at that. Don't burn any
straw this fall.
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