The Profit in Grinding Grain for Stock.
It is acknowledged by all who have investigated the subject
that ground feed is vastly better for animals than unground, and
that fully one-third of the grain is saved by grinding before
feeding.
It has been demonstrated by experiment that 100 bushels of
ground corn will increase the weight of animals 1,200 pounds,
while the same quantity fed unground will add but 800 pounds.
The domestic animal is simply a mechanism designed for
man's convenience, hence, it is an important question as to how
stock should be handled to secure the most profitable results.
How can we derive the most milk and the best calves from a
cow? How can we produce the most rapid growth in steer or
swine and secure the largest amount of labor from a horse?
These are paramount questions when considering the relations
of man to the animal kingdom, and upon their proper solution
largely depends the usefulness and health of man and beast. Of
course, water, air, exercise and shelter are essential but above
all this must be placed food, this being the fuel which keeps the
fires of animal heat aglow and sustains life.
To get the best results from food it must be properly prepared
before entering the stomach, else digestion and perfect assimilation are interfered with. Grinding is the only method by
which we can assist the animal in securing the best results from
food. It reduces the kernel of the grain to that condition
whereby it is readily masticated and mixed with the fluids of
the stomach, thus completing the process of digestion.
Because of greed or unsound teeth, animals bolt the unground
grain fed them and it passes into and through the stomach
carrying with it, not only the nutriment of the grain, itself, but
of other partly digested foods which may be in the stomach at
the same time. We have not yet reached that stage of advancement whereby dentistry can be practiced to any appreciable
extent upon the defective molars of the animal kingdom, hence,
we must devise some machinery by which to correct the defects
of nature, and nothing thus far has been discovered that answers
the purpose so well as the grinding machine.
Some feeders of stock contend that softening the grain obviates grinding, but this is fallacious, inasmuch as hogs grow fat
from the droppings of cattle and horses fed upon unground
grain.
The mere act of eating does not appease hunger. It is the
digestion and assimilation of food that satisfies hunger. Further-
more, an animal is less likely to gorge itself on ground than unground feed.
The progressive farmer will certainly recognize the advan-
tages of grinding feed in order to attain the most profitable
results, and as the cost of feed mills, through perfection and
simplicity of design. is becoming lessened every day, it is within
the reach of every farmer to have a plant of his own amply
sufficient for all practical needs. Then, again, a farmer of speculative turn of mind can purchase a mill and pay for it by
grinding feed for his neighbors, thus securing his own grinding
without cost.
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