GRASS AND THE NATIONAL FOOD SUPPLY 471 



Food obtained from an Acre of Grassland under Various Treatments. 



Treatment. 



1. Four cuts (1934) Highest . 



Lowest 



2 . A field at Dairy House twice cut and then 



grazed ...... 



3. A field at Dairy House mown for hay and 



aftermath grazed .... 



4. Intensive grazing at Mr. Brunton's farm 



(average of 10 years) .... 



5. Ordinary pasture (calculated from Sir 



Thos. Middleton's data) . 



6. Ordinary meadow (calculated from Sir 



Thos. Middleton's data) 



7. Dairy House (average of whole farm, 1935) 



8. „ „ „ „ „ 1936) 



9. Wheat (17 -7 cwt.) .... 



At Dairy House we are probably producing three to four times as much 

 food (for animals) per acre as is being produced on the average grass farm 

 in this country. At the same time we are doing the animals well — the 

 cows have a good bloom on their coats even at the end of the winter, and the 

 young stock thrive well. The introduction of drying on the farm has not 

 only produced the winter feed for the cattle, but it has enabled the grass- 

 land to be improved, so that the grazing period is extended earlier in the 

 spring and later into the autumn. It is also probable that the cows yield 

 more milk during the winter than they would do on other rations. At 

 Dairy House last year, when the cows went out to grass in the spring, the 

 increased yield of milk was 9-6 per cent., whilst at another farm, equally 

 well managed but where dried grass was not fed, the increase in yield was 

 17-6 per cent. From this one may conclude that during the latter part of 

 the winter the cows at Dairy House were giving about 8 per cent, more 

 milk than they would have done on ordinary feeding-stuffs. This is perhaps 

 to be expected, for grass is the natural food of cows, and the protein of 

 grass probably contains a better assortment of amino-acids for milk pro- 

 duction than do the proteins of feeding cakes, and we know that dried grass 

 provides the vitamins and minerals required. 



By the use of a grass drier we have increased the food production on the 

 farm so that we do not require to buy concentrated feeding-stuffs so long 

 as we keep only the same number of animals as were formerly kept on the 

 farm, but to cows giving more than four gallons of milk per day we give an 

 extra ration of a high protein food such as linseed cake. 



There is no reason why more cows should not be kept, and feeding cakes 

 fed as well as dried grass, except that we have no more cow houses on the 

 farm. The solution of this problem in the warmer parts of England is 

 perhaps the use of the Hozier Bale system in which the cows are kept and 

 milked in the field all the year round. If the number of cows in the country 

 were generally increased we should have to make more cheese or butter than 

 we do now, or, of course, we might drink more milk. To bring our con- 

 sumption of milk up to the level recommended by the League of Nations 

 Commission on Nutrition, it has been estimated by Sir John Orr that we 

 should need to possess quite another million cows, i.e. increase the present 

 number by nearly 50 per cent. 



