THE FEEDING OF FARM STOCK. 



enables them more perfectly to digest the chart', bran, and meal which form 

 the larger portion of their food. By improving rumination and digestion 

 this food aids in preventing colic, tympany, and indigestion. 



Corn and Corn Meal. — Valuable concentrated foods but lack protein ; they 

 are best given with Lucerne or clover hay. 



Oats. — Good concentrated food but docs not possess the same high value 

 for cattle as for horses. If the ration is well balanced it can l'eplace corn. 



Linseed Meal. — A concentrated food rich in protein and mineral salts. 

 Can be used to balance much of the lack of protein in chaff. Slightly 

 laxative. 



Pumpkins. — Useful as part of the bulk food but requires the addition of a 

 onsiderable amount of concentrates to make a balanced ration. The same 

 thing applies to melons, &c., and roots. 



Diseases Associated with Feeding in Cattle. 



Tympanites — Hoven. — -This is due to the formation of gases in the rumen 

 or paunch, and very frequently follows the feeding of cattle on luxuriant and 

 succulent green food. It is more often observed, even in well-fed stock, when 

 they are first turned on to clover, trefoil, lucerne, and other leguminous plants, 

 but it is more likely to occur if the animals are hungiw and are put on to the 

 pasture in the early morning. Even a small amount of dry food given 

 previously will tend to counteract the likelihood of tympanites occurring, and 

 cattle may safely be put on to growing crops after the sun has been on them 

 for a few hours, even though the same crops might have caused trouble before 

 such exposure to the sun. It should also be remembered that cattle become 

 accustomed to a food, and that the first occasion on which they are put on to 

 tnese crops is likely to be the most dangerous. Consequently, the first day 

 they should be allowed to feed for a few minutes only, and well watched, 

 the time being increased gradually each day. Should rain occur, however, 

 and afresh, quick shoot result, care will again be required. 



The same conditions may result when stock which have been for long on 

 dry food are first given a quantity of green food of any description; this may 

 occur among travelling stock coming empty on to green, succulent food 

 The reputation of some plants, such as pigweed (Portulaca oleracea), as 

 poisonous, has not improbably resulted from mortality from this cause. 



As each case must be dealt with according to local circumstances, the only- 

 advice possible is that care should be taken when animals come on to succu- 

 lent food after a long spell on dry innutritious feed, or after a railway 

 journey during which they have been deprived of food and water. 



Impaction of the Rumen. — Many cases described under this heading 

 would be more correctly described as atony of the rumen, as the impacted 

 condition not infrequently results from a weakened state of the organ 

 itself. It occurs under two rather different sets of conditions. Cattle 

 which have been for long on a diet of innutritious food of a bulky 

 nature may become so lowered in health, although maintaining fair con- 

 dition, that what is known as the " tone;" of the animal is not up to the 

 Standard required for dealing with the food. The digestive tract appears to 

 be one of the first portions of the body to suffer from this lack of tone — the* 



