Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1870-08-05
Summer Food for Dairy Cows.


LET the milk producing faculties of the
cow be ever so good, these faculties will
fail, if the requisite food, both in quality
and quantity, be withheld from her. The
manufacturer or machinist may have the
best propelling power in the world with
which to work bis machinery, but if he
have scant supply of water with
which to drive his wheel, or is short of
fuel to make the required amount of
steam for his engine, his power in both
cases fails, and portion of his capital
expended in the construction Of his ma
chinery is lost It is 80 with the COW.
She may be so anatomically and physio-
logically constituted, as to yield the great
est possible production of milk, of which
her nature is capable, but to obtain that
production an abundance of the proper
food must be given.
The COW is simply piece of animal
machinery, composed of stomach, lungs,
yiscera, milk secretives, and udder, 80 far
as her dairy quality is concerned, and that
machinery will not work to its full
power, without the necessary food and
care to keep it in action. We are salts.
fled that one.fourth to one-half the profit
which might be drawn from our Ameri-
can cows, is annually lost to their keepers
by want of the necessary quantity
and the proper quality of food which
should be given to them-and conse-
quently considerable portion of the
capital invested in their purchase, or
value, Is thus unproductiVe and that
only from the short supply of food and
want OF care given them. A good Jdnay
or dairy COW, without regard to her breed,
anywhere in the United States, and at
any time, is worth fifty to seventy five
dollars. Such COW will produce 900 to
800 gallons of milk, or 200 to $50
pounds of butter, or $50 to 600 pounds of
cheese in year, and possibly more-if
properly fed; or, abe may produce but
half those quantities of each, or either, if
ecantily fed. In both cases the original
cost or value of the COW is the same the
care is, or should be, nearly the same,
while all the loss in her production is
caused by the inadequacy of her food, a
full supply of which would be but small
percentage added to the cost of poor feed
ing. This We think fair statement.
Now what shall that food be? Fresh,
succulent grass of good quality, and as
much of it as her digestive powers will
consume during the grazing season, is the
readlest and most natural food of the
COW, giving her not only the most nutri-
ment but producing the best milk. There.
fore she should have it in unstinted abund.
ance. When at pasture she should not
toll Tor her food. She should have it
within easy reach, with good water al
ways at hand. No matter how active her
breed, or habits, the easier she obtains
her food, with abundant time for rest, the
more abundant will be her yield of milk,
and the greater will be the quantity of
cheese, or butter, she will make. The
judgment of her keeper will determine
when the pastures fail in their supply of
grass, and then other food, as an equiva-
lent, must be given.
Fresh growing grass gives quantity
OF milk; that which is riper and dryer
gives better quality or more richness, and
perhaps an equal quantity of butter or
eheese from less amount of milk. The
particular state of the grass, whether in
us most sappy, or succulent, or in its
drler or more matured condition, go that
the COW can have enouqh of it, is of less
consequence to the cheese and butter
dairymen but the sale milk dairymen
must supply the succulence wanting in
the drier grasses. This must be made
up In other material, and also in short
pasturage, to the other class of dairies,
under the head of soiliDg.
Every farmer knows that milk is sub
iect to remarkable changes in quality and
quantity. 1t is different at different times,
on different farms, and often on the same
farm. What is the cause of the fluctua.
tions and strange changes? Undoubtedly
the food taken, though we may not al
ways be able 10 trace it. The animal has
its likes and dislikes; the food which one
animal rejects another takes greedily /;
that which the COW prefers to day, she
may be disinclined to take tomorrow or
next week, and seeks change-ADaer-
lean Stock Journal.