The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1880-09-09
Late Summer Care of Cows.

Two many dairymen are careless abOut feeding
their herds in the busy time of harvest; yet, this
is, perhaps, the most trying time of the season.
The farmer is extremely busy, and fOrgets To in
spect his pastures and that there is sufficient
food TO keep his cows in condition and to pro-
duce full yield of milk. He often says: 81 fear
my pastures are getting too short for my cows,
but hope that we shall soon have rains that
will give fresh feed, and then my cows will come
again." But this is a mistaken opinion, which
he seldom takes the trouble fully to investigate.
Milk is a temporary product, and naturally grows
less the time advances from calving. and when
there is n falling off il can seldom be recovered
so that when a COW falls off five ten pounds in
her milk il means the loss of about that amount
every day in the remainder of the season. This is
n very serious matter, and does not admit of de-
lay for propitious rains. Before they come and
eause the grass to grow your herd of cows have
lost one-ourth to Onethrd of their usefulness for
the rest of the season. Let the dairyman, then,
look to his herd in time, and see that the wants
of each COW are provided for. daryman should
study the peculiarities of each COW. Some cows
will appropriate all the extra food they can di-
gest to the secretion of milk, and even deplete
their own systems 10 keep up full flow of milk.
Such cows should be especially well provided for
their generosity should he reciprocated. These
are the cows that pay for feeding. They pay back
the principal with large percentage of interest
on all the extra food given them. They are only
good cows that will pay for extra feeding; in
fact, they are only good cows that will pay for
feeding at all. And dalryinan may rest assured
that COW that will not respond Ia liberal feed
ing by an equal increase of milk is not worth
keeping, and instead of adding to his income runs
him in debt every year. Ifhe has carefully noted
the comparative yield of milk by each of his
cows, he should feed them in proportion to their
yield. From long practice we have found no
failure of good cows to respond to extra feeding
in late summer. We have often given debit and
credit to the cows extra feed, and always
found the credit ahead. When the feed begins
to grow scanty in July, commence by feeding
pound of linsecd meal and pound of bran ia
each COW per day. The linseed costs II cents
and the bran cents, making cost of cents
per day. This small allowance will keep up the
flow at the beginning of the deficit of grass. II
the pasture should become still shorter, double
the allowance and still the extra milk will pay
all. We have often, also, mentioned the fact
that the fertilizer left by this rich food is worth
large part of the cost of the extra feeding.
OF course, if the dairyman has green clover,
fodder corn millet peas and oats, etc, 10 feed
his herd, night and morning, in stall, he may
dispense with the other food; but, As there arc
so few dairymen who have fully provided these
green foods the great body of them must resort
to grain foods. The various oil-cakes should
always be used in part when food mnst be pur-
chased, for they have an excellent effect upon
the cows as well as the product-NdtioHdl Lire
SfocE ToHraaI