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Hi Everyone,

I work at the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading. We recently acquired a new donation that has left us a little stumped. The feed rationing calculator, designed by Derek Richard Stuckey in 1943 was used to calculate the feed to be given to livestock such as cattle, including those used for milk production. It features tabs, slotted in to the calculator with a measuring portion for 'dry matter', 'protein equivalent', and 'starch equivalent' in its second half. These tabs are inscribed with foods for livestock, including 'silage', 'hay', 'carrots', 'brewers grains', and 'linseed oil cake'. The original patents were also donated to the Museum's archives, however, upon reading these, myself and my colleagues are non the wiser about how exactly these calculators would have worked or who would have used them, whether a farmer, vet, or agricultural official.
Has anyone ever come across a similar item, or heard of Stuckey? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Please let me know if you need any additional images or information and I can provide these.

Best,
Rachael

Hi Rachael
I've no idea whether this will help, but we have a publication on rationing in LIBRAL. It is called 'Departmental Committee on rationing of dairy cows: report'. You can find it in the All titles list. To sign up for LIBRAL, https://www.bahs.org.uk/LIBRAL.html

PS In fact, it is now the most recently added item, as I had to re-upload it because it hadn't been watermarked.

There are also (onLIBRAL) two MAF bulletins called Rations for Livestock, and one is dated 1948.

Hi Rachael

Never heard of the man or his calculator.

However, a straightforward internet search will show you that D R Stuckey was a barrister from Reading, involved in certain activities during WW2 when he was also farming, and that he was latterly associated with the Beech Hill Jersey Herd.

Looking at the images you have provided, it would appear that the tabs in the upper half would have been taken and slotted into the lower half in order to build up a feed ration and to calculate the overall protein equivalent etc of the whole ration - the length of each tab representing the relative contribution of each feed to the ration. The difference between the green and red tabs may either represent the difference between good quality feed (green) and poor quality feed (red) or the green tabs were used in certain of the rows in the second half and the red tabs in other rows (for instance, green for dry matter, red for starch equivalent or whatever according to the patent / instructions). Finally, I would suggest that the numbers on the ends of each tab may represent the weight of feed in pounds.

You say that this was developed in 1943 - it would have been important to derive the maximum output from any given ration, given that some of the feeds mentioned may have been in short supply at differing times during WW2. With a set of instructions this could have been used by farmers or by CWAEC officials.

Hope this helps

Thank you so much for your responses! I should have clarified, I had undertaken a Google search of Stuckey and had come across his personal and professional history as a result. It was in this searching, however, that I realised there was no mention of this invention anywhere or its usage in farming, agricultural management, or veterinary practice.

Thank you Alan for your suggestions. They make a lot of sense and resonate with some of the other responses I've had beyond this forum. Hopefully I will stumble across some literature that makes reference to Stuckey and this device soon!
Best wishes,
Rachael

Dear all,

Many thanks once again for your contributions to this query.
As we are only acquiring one of the five calculators passed on to us, the donor has given us permission to dispose of the other four, none of which are accessioned into our collection. One is near complete while the other three only have a few of their original pieces remaining. I have already contacted the Rural Museums Network, but no interest was shown - Would anyone be interested in acquiring any of them? I am happy to send photos if needed.
Many thanks,
Rachael