J 922.] 



The Farmer and Home-grown Foods. 



785 



sent prices home-grown grain is a cheaper food than the usual 

 purchased concentrates and as to what price these home-pro- 

 duced foods must reach before it will pay the producer to sell. 

 A definite answer covering the whole range of purchased foods 

 cannot be given straight aw^ay, owing to the large variation in 

 their relative prices at any particular time. The possession 

 of alternative markets is one of the economic advantages of the 

 farming industry, and a study of the question " To Feed or 

 Sell? " has brought out some interesting facts, which are here 

 presented in the hope that they will prove of use to farmers all 

 over the country. 



Classification of Foods. — From the chemical point of viev7, 



wheal, oats and barley are carbohydrate foods, and can be used 

 to substitute similar types of food normally purchased. No 

 matter which type of carbohydrates is fed — either home-gTown or 

 purchased — protein also must be supplied to ensure the greatest 

 possible utilisation of the food. The following list, abstracted 

 from the feeding records of some 50 farms, includes those carbo- 

 hydrate foods normally purchased : Maize germ meal, maize 

 meal, middlings, dried grains, bran. Which, if any, of these 

 can be replaced by liome-growii grains, so as to reduce the cost 

 oi a ration? 



Basis of Valuation. — As foods — even those in the same class, 

 •e.g., carbohydrates — possess different values to the animal, and 

 as they also possess different manarial values, price per ton 

 cannot be taken as a basis of comparison. It is, however, 

 perfectly fair to compare foods of the same class on their price 

 per unit starch equivalent, to determine which is a simple matter. 



Methods of Calculation. — If from the price per ton the 

 manurial value of the food in question be deducted the result is 

 the feeding value per ton. When this is divided by the starch 

 equivalent of the food — a figure originally proposed by Kellner 

 and now^ incorporated in most standard tables of the composition 

 of foods — the result is the price per unit starch equivalent. This 

 iH shown in the following example : — 



Sharj>>i. 



Price per ton 



Less Manurial Value 



(^Starch Equicalent 



f)3 per 100 Ih.) 

 £9 10 

 1 14 



Feeding Value 



£7 16 



Divide feeding value by Starch Equivalent (63) 

 Price per Unit Starch Equivalent... 2s. 6d. 



