GREEN FORAGE AND HAY CROPS 129 



43 per cent. Practical feeding experience and the results of chemi- 

 cal analyses and digestion trials suggest that cereal straw ranks in 

 the following order as regards feeding value : Oats, barley, wheat 

 and rye straw. Straw is often used for feeding in the stack. On 

 grain farms where straw is abundant, only little stock is, as a rule, 

 kept, and the straw, if utilized at all, is fed in the stack, or baled and 

 shipped to be used for bedding. 



Cornstalks. The straw of the Indian corn plant, known as 

 stover, cornstalks, or Corn fodder, is an important rough feed on all 

 American farms where corn is grown. It is either left standing in 

 the field where cattle nibble the leaves and tender parts during the 

 fall and winter months, or it is cut and cured in the field in shocks 

 that are later brought in and used as feed for cattle, sheep, and 

 horses (p. 108). The cornstalks are now often run through a 

 shredder in the same operation as the shock corn is being husked, 

 and the shredded fodder is stacked for use in the fall and winter. 

 The shredded cornstalks make a fair quality of rough feed, which is 

 generally eaten up clean by farm animals. This is never the case 

 when whole cornstalks are fed, and rarely so when they are cut 

 before feeding. Shredded fodder also makes a better stable ab- 

 sorbent than either whole or cut stalks. 



Corn stover, like straw of the small grains, makes a valuable 

 feed for young stock, idle horses, or cattle, that are being car- 

 ried over the winter, in fair condition until spring time. The 

 Massachusetts station found, as the result of four years' experi- 

 ments, 25 that moderately thin yearling steers lost only 33 pounds 

 per head when wintered on whole cornstalks alone. This feed will, 

 therefore, furnish nearly a maintenance ration for such animals. 

 In trials at the Nebraska station two-year-old steers fed one-half 

 alfalfa hay and one-half cornstalks did nearly as well as those fed 

 clear alfalfa hay, similar amounts of corn being fed in both cases. 

 In one experiment lasting 168 days the average gains made were 

 even slightly greater than when alfalfa was fed as the sole rough- 

 age. 26 Trials at the New Hampshire station 27 show that cut corn 

 stover may be considered a good substitute for timothy for winter 

 feeding of horses when fed with concentrates. Other experiments 

 have shown the value of cornstalks for feeding cows and sheep. It 

 is evident, therefore, that cornstalks are well worth utilizing for 

 feeding purposes to a far greater extent than has heretofore been the 

 case, especially on farms in the corn belt. A proper appreciation 

 of the value of cornstalks and grain straw for feeding live stock 



26 Bulletin 71. * Bulletins 90, 93, 100. Bulletin 82. 

 9 



