The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-10-13
Fall Feed.

COW should 90 dry at Thanksgiving,
and aboard through the winter with
her owner at his expense. IL the fall
months are given to the abundant and
uniform feeding of green soiling mate
rial, the cows kept in warm stables af-
ter the frosty nights, and are not allow
ed to become drenched with chilling
rains, and fair quantity of protein
foods Qike bran or buckwheat shorts)
is given them to supply the missing
element in the frosted and dry heritage,
there is no reason why a COW that is to
drop her calf in March or April should
not milk well to the first of February,
as well as the COW that calves in the fall
months, If well cared for, should milk I'M
til July 10. The stimulating grasses OF
May, June and July actually force milk
supply, and the same would be quite
true of the months of September, Octo-
Der and November, and a part at least
of December, could be made to supply
good nutritious succulence as abundant
ly as the early parts of summer. In
the autumn months, the winter dairy
herd is quite as dependent on an album
dance Of succulence as are the summer
cows; for TO let the former shrink for
a lack of succulent food, is to show a
great loss in milk that can never be re.
stored by any system OF feeding.
All this extra feed is secured from
the small field of millet, sweet corn and
others of our now recognized good soil
ing crops; and here and there is man
who is demonstrating that no fall soil
ing comes quite as near filing the re-
quirements of milk-production, or is as
cheap and sure, 80 as to have small
pit of ensilage left over on purpose
from the previous years crop.
This extra food brings a two-fold
compensation: First, the increased
milk yield, which more than pays for
all time, labor and expense about it;
and, besides, the increased thrift of the
cow, and her better preparation for the
winter and increased vigor. If the COW
is a winter mixer, the same argument
holds good, with this addition, that the
milk yield is held up to its full flow;
whereas, if there is restriction in the
food, or exposure, it takes food from
milk channels to compensate for this
negligence to supply extra food and
provide shelter against inclement
weather; and less milk is given where
otherwise there would be a full COM
pensation.
Along this very line of economics is
one feature that should be expunged
quickly from the rules of not a few
dairymen-that of toughening the COW,
the feast and famine, heat and cold al
ternating plan, which in winter finds
its expression in no end of out-of-doors
exposure in all sorts of weather, so that
the COW may have constitutional STAN
ina. This idea is one of the relics that
need TO be blotted from every mans
creed, and its observance, even by the
minority, is costing a vast sum every
year, because it requires in the end a
double restorative. The cow once
made poor and thin must, when the
day of prosperous feeding comes, re-
cruit her own wasted energies first, and
later on when ready better to respond
at the pail, finds the burned and drying
feed of midsummer, and one has quick
ly the old experience of limited mess
of milk. 1t is not enough that the COW
has abundant crop feeding in the au-
tumn, but fair feed of some of our
protein foods pays, from the fact that
about all our soiling crops are in the
main of starchy character and lack
ing in the protein element which makes
up the supply of blood material, and
which now is conceded on all sides to
be the great essential in milk-produc-
ton and long yields. So small ration
daily of bran or like protein foods is of
great assistance. Even on the best of
grass, the writer has believed that a
pound or two of oat dust or bran, pos
sibly little oil meal and lightener
with it, has paid when fed to each COW,
and was very sure of it later on when
the sweet corn and like foods were be-
ing fed. AS frosts and crispy weather
come, let the grain ration be increased
somewhat and no loss can come, as
milk is then fast approaching in value,
and is therefore more than value re-
ceived.
Lately ensilage is becoming factor
in this late summer and fall soiling,
and not few restrict the pasturage
and feed ensilsge as the principal
roughage ration the year round. In
the autumn there can be no question
about this sort Of food for the herd,
and it is fast gaining ground in the es-
timation of the dairymen who are think
ing about the economic side of the food
supply. With ensilage there is the
same thing to be met with as with the
flush, rank food of the pastures. En-
silage represents more truly than any
other food the starch side of the ration,
and in the summer or fall feeding of it
some sort of protein should therefore
be fed with it. True, bricks can be
made without straw, but in the end
there will be deficiency to be met.
Cows can give milk-for while-with-
out much protein, but they give more
milk, and longer, with it in some of its
forms, and in the autumn feeding of
the cows, weatever the character of the
roughage, the protein needs to be one
of its minor elements, minor in guam
tity but major in Importance John
Gonld in Country Gentleman