176 Feeds and Feeding. 



growing in the United States is drawing to a close. Instead of 

 burning vast quantities of straw and wasting many other rough- 

 ages as is now done, all these will soon be used along with silage, 

 roots, grains, and the by-products of the flouring mills for feeding 

 dairy cows, fattening cattle, and sheep in order to supply the ever- 

 increasing wants of a vast population. 



242. Straw and chaff . Straw is poor in crude protein and fat, 

 and rich in woody fiber or cellulose, a carbohydrate that requires 

 much energy for its digestion and disposal. Accordingly straw 

 should be used but sparingly, at most, with animals at hard work, 

 fattening rapidly, or giving a large flow of milk. For animals at 

 light work, fattening slowly, or giving only a little milk some straw 

 can often be advantageously used. Straw is particularly useful in 

 winter with horses that are idle and cattle that are being carried 

 over without materially gaming in weight. Heat is one of the prin- 

 cipal requirements of such animals, and the large amount of energy 

 expended in masticating, digesting, and passing straw thru the body 

 finally appears as heat which helps warm the body. The stockman 

 who understands the nature and properties of straw will usually be 

 able to make large use of it. (71, 73, 403) In Europe straw is ex- 

 tensively used for fattening cattle. Oat straw with its soft, pliable 

 stems is the most nutritious, followed by barley straw 7 . "Wheat straw, 

 being coarse and stiff, is not so readily eaten by cattle. Bye straw 

 is harsh and woody and is best suited for bedding. In Canada and 

 Europe pulped roots and meal are mixed with straw, and the moist 

 mass allowed to soften and even to ferment slightly, after which it 

 is readily consumed in large quantities by cattle and sheep with 

 satisfactory results. The chaff of wheat and oats contains more 

 crude protein than does straw, and forms a useful roughage for 

 stock. All such roughage will be wisely utilized when a rational 

 system of feeding is followed. (73, 403, 437-8) 



While not especially desirable, flax straw may be fed with advan- 

 tage when better roughage is scarce. The statement that the 

 stringy fiber of flax forms indigestible balls in the stomachs of farm 

 animals is unwarranted, since it is digested the same as other fibrous 

 matter, such as the lint of cotton and the pith of corn stalks, for 

 example. 



