Preliminary Report: Feeding Flax Straw to Cattle

Introduction: This circular gives the results of feeding flax straw to cattle. Reports show that flax was introduced into New England and Virginia, in the early colonial days, and grown chiefly for its fiber. Later its cultivation as a seed crop spread westward with the settlement of new lands. South Dakota ranks third among the states in the production of flax. In the statistical report, issued by the South Dakota Department of Agriculture, for 1930, we find that every county in the state is credited with growing flax. The largest acreage is reported from Perkins County in the West River country and the smallest from Union county in the Southeastern part of the state, which county is one of the smallest in the state. Of the 711,442 acres, 40,862 were grown west of the Missouri River. In this connection it might be well to state that according to the last census of the United States Department of Commerce, over one-third of the cattle population of the state is credited to the West River country. The by-product of the industry, the straw, is still used for manufacturing purposes, but the chances are that more flax straw produced on the farms in South Dakota is used for feeding livestock than for manufacturing purposes. (See more in text