The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1894-08-23
FOOD FOR Mich COWS
Dairying and Cheese Making
Attracting Attention.
SOME VALUABLE EXPERIMENTS.

Food Mixed--Cotton Seed Meal Valuable
and Can he Safely Fed.
The possibilities of Georgia in dairy
ing and cheese making IS at the pres
ent time exciting increased interest.
A dairyman's association is now con-
templated and with attention attracted
to the subject we hope to see great de-
velopment and progress III this agrlcul-
tural industry. Pertinent to the ques-
ton are the many inquiries relative to
the proper ration for mich cows. To
the south, this presents its most lmpor-
tant feature, as to the extent and proper
ration with the use of cotton seed meal
and cotton seed hulls. The former
finds ready consumption as a fertilizer
but if care is exercised it can be used
both as a food and fertilizer-the
dropping losing but little of the meas
ured value of the food while the mich
and food making properties are utilized
Cotton seed hulls. if utilized, must
Gnd their place as a feed stuff for the
maintenance of stock or the dairy
Careful experiment is the best test as
to how to utilize these two great pro-
ducts of the southern oil mills and we
therefore give synopsis of the work of
the Tennessee and Georgia stations on
the proper and profitable ration.
FROM THE TENNESSEE STATION.
SYNoPSIS.-An experiment with two
lots of six cows each in substituting cot
ton seed hulls for ration of corn silage
and hay. The trial lasted three and
half months. Thirteen pounds of hulls
were found to be equivalent to ration
of 10 pounds of silage and 6pounds of
hay, and to cost about 10 per cent less.
The continued use of cotton seed hulls
and cotton seed meal with no other food
was found to be unsafe.
An experiment is reported in substi-
tuting cotton seed hulls for corn silage
and hay in ration for mich COWS.
Twelve COWS of the station herd were
divided into two lots of six each. The
trial lasted from December Is to March
49, AT the beginning of the trial, lot A
was fed 80 pounds of corn silage, 6
pounds of hay, 3pounds of cotton seed
meal, and pounds of whea%Oran; and
lot B was fed rs pounds of cotton seed
hulls, 4 pounds of cotton seed meal, and
4pounds of corn meal. After few
weeks feeding in this way cotton seed
hulls were gradually substituted for the
corn silage and hay i'll the case Of lot A,
and corn silage and hay were gradually
substituted for the cotton seed hulls in
the ration of lot B.
Finally the grain ration was also
changed so that lot A received the ra-
ton throughout which lot B had been
fed, and vice versa. In the last period
of 20 days both lots We're brought back
to uniform ration of Is pounds of corn
silage, - pounds of cotton seed bulls, 8
pounds of cotton seed meal, and 9
pounds of wheat bran. Full data for
the experiment are tabulated for each
animal. Most of the cows ate the IA
ton of hay and silage more eagerly
than the cotton seed hulls.
1t was found that the ration of cotton
seed products fed alone, i. e., cotton
seed hulls and cotton seed meal, could
not long be safely continued
The result shows that 10 pounds of
cotton seed hulls can be advantageously
used to take the place of Is pounds of
corn silage and 6 pounds of hay in max
ing up ration with 3 pounds of cotton
seed meal and pounds of wheat bran,
while reducing the cost about 10 per
cent.
We are thoroughly convinced that,
properly used, cotton seed hulls, from
sound seed and free of extraneous mat
ter, of such quality as those furnished
to us for this series of experiments, are
a valuable addition to our list of feed
stuffs for mich COWS. We can recon-
mend as giving satisfactory results the
use of as much as 10 pounds of cotton
seed hulls in the daily ration per 1,O0e
pounds live weight. A larger proper
ton has, with our cows, caused a weak
ening of the digestive powers, evidenced
in some cases by tendency to diarrhea,
in others to constipation.
Cotton seed meal is the most valuable
of all the socalled waste products used
as feed stuffs. 1t can be safely fed for
long periods, as much as pounds per
day per 1000 pounds live weight, in the
ration for cows giving milk. For but
ter making it is not advisable to exceed
3pounds daily. AS the COW approaches
the time for calving, the proportion of
cotton seed meal should not exceed s
pounds daily.
Cotton seed meal and cotton seed hulls
should be far more extensively used as
cattle food. These products of the cot
ton fields of the south will enable the
far11opv-c of Tay,,,n-ro