Feeding Dairy Cattle 



this. Rye is often used as a winter cover crop because a good 

 amount of green material may be turned in from this crop 

 earlier in the spring than with any other, so that rye makes 

 an excellent soiling crop or crop for green manure. 



The green rye crop may be used as early pasture for hogs 

 or for cattle. This green feed is practically the only way 

 that rye can be utilized as a roughage due to the toughness 

 of the green rye straw. The rye plant is rarely used for hay. 

 The same applies to rye straw from which the grain has been 

 thrashed. The straw is so tough that it is not palatable and 

 cannot lie used to good advantage by the animals. There- 

 fore, we must put the r3'e plant down as one of the poorest 

 plants that we have for production of roughage except for its 

 usefulness as a very early green crop to be used as a soiling 

 crop or for pasture in the spring. 



EYE GRAIN 



Rye has been used as a grain probably as widely as any 

 plant that we have. It is known in all countries and is a 

 good crop because it will grow on many different soils. This 

 grain, sometimes called "Grain of poverty," thrives in general 

 in cool regions. It is said that one-third of the people of 

 Europe obtain their bread from rye. Rye is fed commonty 

 to all animals all over Europe and Asia. It is not so well 

 known in America and due to the fact that it is not Avell 

 known many farmers have aversion to it for feeding. I 

 think that the dangers from feeding rye to animals is over 

 estimated. 



As a feed for dairy cows ground rye may be used in 

 rations just as one would use ground oats or ground barley 

 or corn meal, that is, to form a part of the grain mixture with 

 proper bulky feeds like wheat bran or ground oats and proper 

 high protein feeds like gluten feed, oil meal or cottonseed 

 meal. Probably it is not advisable to grow rye for feeding 

 dairy cattle unless there is something about the soil on a given 

 farm which seems to demand the use of the rye in the rota- 

 tion. I doubt if ground rye is as valuable as ground barlev 

 or corn meal for dairy production, but a good dairy farmer 

 should always be on the lookout for a bargain in a grain, and 

 if it is possible to purchase rye relatively cheaper, it will be 

 found to be a valuable addition to the grain mixture. 



In comparison, ground rye does not differ materially from 

 grovtnd barley. According to average analyses ground rye 

 would contain 1620 pounds of total digestible nutrients per 

 ton. A ton of ground barley would have in it 1588 pounds 



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