The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1877-07-07
HOW to Feed.

~ There is no one accomplishment of the
dairymen equal to that of being a skill
full feeder. Here is the point that makes
the profit or loss in a dairy. 1t is well
to look upon the cow in the light of a
mill for converting raw material into a
merchantable article. As she is fed, so
will she yield. But this does not mean
simply promiscuous heavy feeding, nor
does it mean feeding with articles of
| food that are expensive because they
contain much nutriment in small bulk.
The cows digestive organs are SO con-
structed that they can utilize coarse and
bulky food, and they are therefore pre-
pared to turn to profit much of the
toughest or poorest provender on a farm,
| and if it is prepared with skill, this
provender will answer quite as well as
the most concentrated food product of
a farm. A herd of COWS given the fol-
lowing daily ration has caused them to
yield over 300 pounds of butter year
per cow First feed: four quarts of
bran and meal mixed half and half /;
second feed, one pint of oil meal; third
feed, one sheaf of oats; fourth feed, an
| armful of shock fodder with the corn in
it; fifth feed, all the early cut hay they
will eat up clean sixth feed, four quarts
of bran and meal mixed half and half.
| This viii be called extremely heavy feed
| ing, and it is.
This dairyman causes large number
of cows to average something like 345
pounds of butter year. He started a
poor man, and is now a man of fine
property, all made in the dairy In
summer these cows run on pasture, and
the OATS coyn, fodder and hay are omit
ted, but the bran, oil meal and corn
meal are continued. The COWS are in
condition, but not fat, and being ex-
tremely heavy mixers: have more than
the ordinary proportion of attacks of
milk fever; otherwise they are fine,
healthy cows. The full of this ration is
given only to the COWS that are in full
| flow of milk, the meal and bran being
i OlllttStl Will Ullc SlllppcIS.
Probably the most economical feed in
| winter, with nearly as good results as
the above, would be composed as follows:
First feed, one full bushel of cut barley
or wheat straw mixed wet with four
quarts of bran and meal mixed half and
half; second feed, one pint of oil meal, if
the cows are not very fat; third feed, all
| the early cut hay the COW will eat i;
fourth feed, four quarts of bran and corn
meal mixed with wheat or barley straw
cut and mixed wet This is full ration
| for cow in full milk. a COW that in
clines too much to fatten should have
| more bran and less corn meal, with no
| oil meal at all. A cow inclined to milk
| herself away in flesh should have less
bran and more corn meal and oil meal
This cutting of rule should be applied
to shippers or COWS not in full milk.
The above ration can be superseded in a
great measure by feeding the cow upon
the refuse of the dairy. There is moth
ing better for creating large flow of
milk than feeding the skim milk and
butter milk to the COW. This is strange
| notion TO many people, but in some
dairp districts, as Challtauqua county,
New York, the practite is quite general,
and produces the very best results.
There is one evil result often springing
from this practice that cannot be too
earefall y,guarded against. By allowing
the milk to sour before it is skinned,
and then stand in the hot sun twelve or
twenty-four hours before it is fed to the
cows, decomposition sets in in the milk,
and it has the same effect uponthe cow
as though shehad eaten 50 much carbon.
Itspoils her milk, often producing what
dairymen@ call - animal odora in milk,
rendering it totally unfit tolnake butter
of. To prevent this, feed the milk i'm
mediately after skirnming off the cream,
and If the milk is sweet, all the better.
TO train a c9waet to drink milk, put
some potatoes in a busket, sprinkle abb
eral quantity of meal or bran over them,
wet it we'll with the milk and sprinkle
salt over the ton ot this feed. She will