Abstract
A REPORT on fodder conservation with special reference to grass drying by E. J. Roberts has been published by the Agricultural Research Council (H.M. Stationery Office. 2s.). This is the third report on the subject, and embodies the results of the most recent experiments carried out with the co-operation of agricultural organizers, colleges and experimental farms in Great Britain. A detailed account of grass-drying machinery and equipment is given, and comparison made with the various processes of artificial drying in other countries. There seems to bo little doubt that the conservation of young grass is sound in principle, as it is then at its maximum nutritive value, and feeding trials show that it can largely replace concentrates. The question of the profitableness of grass-drying, however, cannot be answered so simply, as it depends both on the quality of the product and also on other matters such as the market value of the concentrates which it is to substitute, and whether the grass would have been utilized in some other manner or wasted through occurring at a time of surplus growth. The indirect advantages of the process, such as improvement of the sward, control of thistle, etc., must not be over-looked, nor the fact that the lower grades of dried grass are of higher value than the best hay. Profitmaking, however, in this as in many farming enterprises, depends to a very large extent on the skill of the individual.
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Grass Drying. Nature 144, 545–546 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144545d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144545d0