Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-03-25

the point, as usual, but it leads me to
ask an additional question along the
same line. When food costs as per
table below, which is the price in this
| locality, at what price per gallon
should milk be sold to yield fair
profit?
Sheaf oats. OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES = Csc per doz
Bran. ........................13 per ton
9orn meal per ton tom
! Cottonseed meal. ....................28 per ton
"Perhaps he will be tempted to re-
ply that it depends upon how much
milk one gets, but l should like to
know how much milk get, and now
his ration should yield to maks a pay
ing business. The ration which I
find best suited to my COWS and sur
roundings is twenty pounds mixed
hay, four quarts bran, two quarts
shorts, enc quart corn meal, one pint
cettonseed neal, one peck sheaf oats
cut fine, fed warm, we'll mixed up
twice per day. Will Professor Stew
art kindly suggest any change that
will better it, [ have been rearing
calves for two years. according to sug-
gestions made in Feeding Animals, ,
pages 237 and 245, with most satisfac-
tory results. Indeed, calves could
scarcely look finer or grow more rap
idly. B"
B. ration, given by measure instead
Of weight, is rather indefinite. It is
necessary first to give the parts of the
ration definite weights before it can be
intelligently discussed. Four quarts
| hron mounds. oh
pounds; 1 quart corn meal, Il pounds;
1 pint cottonseed neal, 1 pound; peck
fine cut sheaf oats, 3 pounds oats. This
is 81 pounds grain and 30 pounds Of
mixed hay, and is fair ration for good
common milch COWS, yielding an av-
erage of II quarts per day through the
winter. This ration. at the prices Civ
en-, would cost about II cents per day,
and per cow, and the labor must be es-
timated at s cents per day, per cow,
making the cost 25 cents per COW.
This milk must be sold at wholesale
for ten cents per gallon, to give a
reasonable profit, even If the manure
from each cow is estimated at So
per year-a low estimate, if liquid and
solid is completely saved. This
estimate also includes the cost of keep
ing the COW when dry, as we'll as the
three months when her milk falls be-
low the three gallons per day. She
should average three gallons for six
months, ard, when we'll selected, will
give this average for eight months.
Common herds will fall below three
gallons, and profit can not be prom
ised until herd has been weeded out,
and their feeding becomes uniformly
good for at least year. For it must
be remembered that the COW is plastic
in the hands of an intelligent feeder,
and will improve each year until she
reaches or years old.
1t appears that B. only mixed the
ground feed of each cow per day with
one peck of fine cut sheaf oats. This
ration should be mixed with at least
one bushel of cut feed. Cut hay is
quite as good as sheaf oats for this
purpose. I should suggest the follow
| ing as better ration for quantity of
milk: Four pounds bran, two pounds
shorts, four pounds corn and oats,
ground in equal parts by weight, one
pound cottonseed meal, mixed with
one bushel of cut hay, and given in
two feeds. This mixture should re-
main in mass some tea hours before
feeding-long hay would be given at
the third feed.
If the ration were for butter, then
give pounds corn and oats ground,
4 pounds shorts, 3 pounds cottonseed
meal, or. better, 3 pounds new process
linseed meal, mixed with Il bushels
of cut hay and grain in three feeds,
with little long hay at night. This
ration, fed steadily, would improve the
quality of the milk but not increase
the quantity. Dairymen have many
erroneous impressions, and one is that
cow has a fixed and definite char
acter which can not be changed. The
COW is so absolutely dependent upon
her food as the basis of her yielding
milk that she changes with the system
of feeding that she is subject to. For
instance, here are two cows-the one
produces a pound of butter from fif-
teen pounds of milk, and the other
requires thirty pounds of milk for one
of butter. Now, if these two COWS
are equal in digestive capacity, they
may be made to change positions as
to quality of milk in from six to
eighteen months.
When COW has a rich character
for milk she will continue for time
to give rich milk on poor food, by
drawing upon her own SYSTEM to |
make up the deficiency; but this can |
go on but a short time, and nature
must assert its needs, and the cow will |
first supply her own requirements be- |
fore she yields milk,
The writer has a cow that being
tested at 5 years old, made a pouRd Of |
butter from 10 rounds of milk, an | |
being tested again this present year at |
s years old, required 80 pounds of |
nilk for one pound of butter. An
other tested at the same tine and at |
same age, made a pound of butter |
from 16 puonds of milk. and tested |
again this year required "a pounds of |
milk for one pound of butter. Here
was retrograde of 80 per cent. in 8 |
years. Several others being tested |
showed a falling off in quality, but
not to as great an extent. Another
point tn be noted hero IL +bof tbaeo