The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1889-01-31
FOR THE FARMER.
The Problem How to Winter Low-Priced
Cattle and make Them Prorta-
ble-About Fertilizers.
keeping Roots-Hints AboJzt Horses
shipping Poultry.
Winteriug Cattle.

The problem which the intelligent
farmer must solve in these DAYS of low
priced cattle Is how to winter them at
the least cost, and at the same time
keep the young cattle growing and
thrifty, and the cows giving a profit
aDle flow Of milk. saws Waldo T. Brown
IN the Country Gentlenan / have ex-
perimsnted to quite an extent in winter
feeding Of cattle, and / find that in a
thoroughly warm stable / can keep my
cows up to a full flow of milk, OF bring
an animal to the spring in good beef
condition, on a much lighter grain
ration than is generally recommended
If | mistake not. Mr.. Stewart usually
recommends a grain ration of fifteen
pounds a day, and in some cases con-
sidcrably more. Last winter | fed five
cows, most of them giving milk, and
their regular grain ration was ten
pounds of bran and corn and cob
meal, mixed in proportion of about
four pounds of bran to six of the meal
/ never had cows do better, or come
to the spring with smoother coats, and
any one OF them would have made
good beef in April.
In connection with this grain ration
! feed what fodder my cattle will eat
clean at two feeds, and in pleasant
weather they ran at the straw-stack
from two to four hours in the after
noon. / weighed the ration or corn
and fodder TO the cattle several times,
and weighed back the butts they re-
iected. in order to find out what the
waste was, and found that ten pounds
net of fodder was all could get them
10 eat without waste, and that my cattle
did remarkably well on their twenty
pounds day, half grain aud half
fodder. | also found that the waste
was very nearly one-third when the
fodder was bright and well cured. l
found that with this ten pound ration
not COW was off her feed all winter,
but if | increased it much | was in
danger of Overlooking and having my
cows surfeted. The winter before
had beets and small potatoes, so as to
give each cow 2 feed of them each day,
bat my COWS did no better and indeed
scarcely as well as when on this bran
and corn ration.
At the prices now prevailing, S13
per ton for bran and 80 cents per
bushel for corn, this tcn-pound ration
viii cost, including grinding of the
corn, less than cents head a day.
| am fortunate iii getting my grinding
done at a neighbours, less than fourth
Of mile away, for only cents per
bushel of seventy pounds. He owns a
thrasher, and as his engine is not in
use in winter, and his mill cost only
about 500, he can afford to grind
cheap. These iron mills, geared to
run at 4 high rate OF speed. are a
marvel of simplicity, and will grind
from twenty-five to fifty bushels per
hour, the lesser amount so fine as to
make il difficult to tell that there is
any cob in il, and it will be great
benefit to the farmers of any COM
munitv if the men owning thrasher
engines viii introduce them. l had
been thoroughly disgusted with cob
Meal, from feeding it ground on horse
mills, which only cracked the corn and
left many pieces of cob as large as
Grains Of corn, and had thought that
/ would never feed cob meal again,
bat after using the finely ground meal
made By these modern mills | am a
thorough convert to cob meal, and
shall always feed it in winter when it
yss be had.
In our mills, which grind with buhr-
stones, a still cheaper iron mill is now
introduced. costing. | think, $35,
which shells the corn, and then it is
rc-round together on the buhrs. To
iced COW or steer 10 pounds day of
this mixed bran and corn and cob
meal, for six months 0S0 days,) will
require ID - bushels of corn and 720
pounds Of bran. and | will guarantee
that if this is fed to Il l,0O0-pound
animal in thoroughly warm stable,
and it has in addition what it will eat
without waste of corn fodder or clover
hay, that you will find you have good
beef ut the opening of spring. The
animal fed or this ration, however,
must not be turned out Of doors to
shiycr all day in cold rains. or zero
temperature; neither must it be made
TO drink ice-water, nor must the stable
i'm which it is kept be 50 Wellventilated
;hat it feels every breeze that blows.
have not vet adopted the plan OF
warming the water for my stock in
winter, but / feel sure it would pay
where a dozen head or more are kept.
| DO however, pump fresh water for
them which has a temperature several
degrees above the freezing point, and
I have thoroughly warm stable. l
have no doubt that a stable doubles
boarded with building paper between
VIII save one-third of the food, and
where ten or more cattle are kept L
believe this saving in one winter
word pay ali the cost of the double
boarding. Cattle feeders on the prairies
who feed out of doors in all weather,
tell me thai 3-year old steers Will eat
an average of half bushel of corn
per day through the winter and during
eold storms and will often lose in
weight. for days at time at that.
| wish some of your enterprising
readers who are feeding cattle in warm
stables this winter would try this ten
pound ration for few months, and
report the result next spring. 1t will
not be necessary to weigh the food each
day. but YOU can provide a measure
which will hold FIVE pounds, and give
i, full to each animal night and morn
ING. / have often wintered a full
crown horse on corn-fodder and a
much lighter grain ration than this,
and brought it through to spring fat
and glossy.
The weather has been excessively
wet for six weeks past with us, so that
none of our corn viii do to grind, and
l have been feeding soft-ear corn, but
as soon rs corn is dry enough | shall
have a lot ground and lay in bran,
and put my cattle on this ration again,
and will report in the spring how they
do. If they come through in good
condition | shall be greatly pleased,
fer my corn fodder is badly damaged
by the wet weather and have no clover
hay. | presume that our western
farmers are more careless in the mat
ter of Sheltering cattle than those of
the older settled states. At any rate
there is quite large per cent. of them
whose cattle are always lighter in the
spring than they were the previous
fall. 50 that month or six weeks of
the best grazing season of the whole