Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-04-16
Summer Feeding Of Dairy Cows.

Some excellent advice relative to
summer feeding Of dairy cows is found
in an article by Prof C. S. Phelps of
the Storrs agricultural experiment sta
ton. He sums up the advantages Of
constant stall feeding over pasturage
as follows:
A comparatively small amount of land
IS required per head. the food supply can
he closely regulated; the animal does no,
J waste its energy in searching for its
, food; and finally, the manure may all be
preserved Tor use in growing cultivated
crops. with good pasturage three acres
are required TO support a COW. while in
the soilinS system TWO cows may be sup
| ported on one acre In lss2 the Storrs ex-
pertinent station fed four cows on "a
acres from June 10 November /. al
| though no special effort was made 10
produce heavy yields of the various fod-
ders used. The past season the station
| has led six cows on three acres from
June = to October D. In stall feeding
| very little, If any OF the food is wasted
while in pasturing much is spoiled by the
tramping of the animals If the ground is
wet. or by the feed being covered or
made unpalatable by the dropDings On
large, rough pastures, where only a scan
~ supply of food is found at best our
cattle are often Obliged TO exert them
selves to find more food than is needed
Tor the support of the system and hence
have hut little food and energy for the
building up of products. Our periodic
drouths. and consequent shortage OF
pasture feed. which is almost sure to oc-
cur at some time during the summer
makes the use of more or less supple
nentary feed necessary if We keep our
cows producing to their full capacity. At
the present prices of dairy products, any
thing bur light grain feeding during the
summer season is largely out of the
mn stir for
others getting high prices for their pro-
ducts. There are two ways in which a
supply of coarse feed other than pastur-
age may be furnished-as silage, or by
the growing of soiling crops. and feeding
them in a green state. The use of silage
to add to the supply of summer feed is
increasing in favor. A few enterprising
dalrymen are growing sufficient corn
fodder. and preserving il as silage, to
supply the herd for the entire year.
Where this can be economically done il
is one of the cheapest means of keeping
up regular supply of feed 1t has the
advantage over soiling of reducing the
labor of getting the feed to the animals.
Corn silage. however. does not furnish a
perfect ration, and needs to be supple
mented by the use of small quantities of
feeds, like cottonseed, gluten, or linseed.
In few cases. crops which are ready TO
harvest early in the summer have been
preserved as silage. for feeding during
the latter part of the summer.
There seems to be some difficulties ex-
perienced in the summer use of silage
that do not appear during the winter
season. Fermentation in the silo goes on
more rapidly in hot weather, and one or
two cases have been reported where
clover has become nearly putrid during
the time of using. Comparatively small.
deep silos and solidly packed silage
seem to be necessary to prevent too
rapid fermentation during hot weather
In a complete system of soiling, it is i'm
portant to have succession of folders
throughout the growing season. with
each, when needed for use. in its best
stage of growth for feeding. There
should be no breaks in the succession