Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1889-03-21
Warming Food for Milch Cows.

1t is not accidental that the best dairy
regions in the world have been located in
moist and warm climates, where extremes
of heat and cold do not prevail. Hol
land and ,he adjacent regions along the
North Sea, are in Europe the ceGters
where the best mixers have bred. Des.
pite the poverty of the Irish people,
their COWS are generally excellent, and
with less care in breeding than ia OBJ.
served in England. All the British Isles
are moist aud have winters more or less
tempered by the Gulf Stream and the
Atlantic. Oar American winters are far
colder both for man and beast than equal
latitudes in Europe, and our summers
are also dryer and hotter.
It is much easier TO overcome severe
cold than heat or drought. We provide
for this much better ahan formerly.
Basement barns, well protected from the
ingress of cold, can, with a good supply
of cattle, sheep and horses, be made as
comfortable for them as houses are for
men and women. But shelter alone is
not enough. When the tenn perature goes
down TO zero or below, the large amount
of chilled food and drink which even the
best sheltered animals must take will re-
duce it's temperature and make it less
thrifty than ii sbonld be. The advantage
of cooked food and boiled drinks for
people lies in the fact that they are gen
orally luke warm. This is always the case
while the experiment is new. After a
while the ardor of perimentation cools.
The farmer does not find time to fuss
every day In cooking up something fresh.
Preparing food several days in advance,
II gets chilled by exposure, and if it CON
taips mech moisture, sometimes freezes.
In the end the animal may be injured by
the alternate plan of coddling and e.
posure.
The effects OF warmed food and drink
are probably more quickly perceptible
in COWS than iii other farm animals. The
yield of milk is largely affected by the
con lition of milk glands, which are ex-
panded by warmth and contracted by
cold. When COW stands shivering in
the winds or storm, with every muscle of
nerve rigid or strained, the effect of this
discomfort is sooner shown in the milk
section than in anything else. Cold
weather dries up COW no matter how
we'll she j. fed, unless she il sheltered
from it's effects. She may and will fatten
by high feeding, but her milk Is less in
quantity and poorer in quality, as the
carbon that should make the cream is
used up in the animal economy to create
warmth. Enough of the food is thus di-
verted from any profitable use under the
most favorable conditions, and the
amount wasted may be indefinitely in
creased by neglect.
Warming drink for COWS to make them
give more milk requires some precaution
prevent injury. The animal drinks
much more, and is more susceptible to
sudden changes of temperature. The
warm drink must be accom- panied by ex
ira good and nutritious food, or good
cow will rapidly lose flesh under the
unnatural stimulation of milk secretion.
The feeding of ensilage, unless 1t is en-.
riched by adding meal to it, is open TO
the same objection. 1t Is one of the
ways to keep in cold weather the condi-
tions of lactative food, under which the
best COWS usually lose flesh during the
summer. But careful feeder, who watch
es the effects of different kinds of treat
ment, will readily guard against these
dangers.