Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1902-03-10
Continuous Winter stabIing.


Ploughman mingles Renaissance and
advice on the subject of continuous
winter stabling of dairy cows He
was never situated so as to keep the
COWS inside all winter but is satisfied
that is the better method. John
Gould, the veteran dairy authority
says a COW will get all the exercise
she needs from Thanksgiving to Eas-
ter by chewing her cud. The Plough
man hesitates to indOrSe this, but
thinks COWS get too much exercise,
when they are let out to drink icy
water at a trough and are obliged to
stand shivering like fever-and-ague
patient, for half an hour. They ex-
ercised away tie milk that our GUS
toners needed The t"ticle con-
tinues: But we read Of and have
seen some herds that are not let cut
all during the winter, having the
water at the stalls, either to drink
when they so desired or turned on for
them at stated intervals. We like the
last plan best, as the water does not
get stale or filled with dust from the
rough fodder Experiments have
been made which showed no gain in
milk production from having water
constantly on hand.
Some of those herds have not only
kept the same COWS thus tied up year
after year in the winter, and have
kept them healthy and in good cond1-
ton, but have raised strong, vigorous
calves from them, and may be now
having the fourth or fifth generation
so kept and SO raised from calthood
up, and have had no more and per-
haps rather less disease among them
than those herds that have been given
fresh air and exercise out OF doors
every day Those who have had to
DO with that dread disease, tubercu-
losis. have not reported that they
found it more prevalent or more
severe among the herds that have
been kept continually stabbed than
among those that were out every day,
and in some test cases suspected
animals have recovered to all appear
ance when for isolation from the rest
of the herd they were placed in a
separate warm stable and kept in
doors all winter.
These herds were not given wide
confined by stanchions or chains,
and got little more exercise than was
possible by side stepping, lying down
and getting up. The owners OF such
herds feel it necessary to economic
on stable room almost as much as
though they may give a little more
space behind and between the ami
mails than was allowed in the old
fashioned barns.
We believe in fresh air for man or
beast, but it is as easy to let the air
in where they are as to go out and
seek for it. and it is much easier to
regulate the quantity and it's tempera-
ture inside than outside. A north
east gale has more fresh air than we
feel to need some days, and those are
the days when it seems more import
ant to keep the fresh air out than to
let it in But simple and not ex-
pensive ventilating arrangements now
enable one to admit fresh air and
carry away foul air and odors without
greatly changing the temperature or
letting any cold drafts enter directly
upon the animals as they stand or lie
down, the latter being most necessary
to avoid, as it is then the animal
temperature is the lowest.
The dairy COW or one of the dairy
type, bred to have thin skin and fed
to have light coat of fine, soft hair
is as sensitive to cold naturally as
healthy child that has been accus-
toned to be well clad and well shell
tered, and while she may have vi
tally enough to throw off its effects
without serious injury, it must and
does reduce her capacity for produc-
ton of both milk and butter fat, and
it also creates the necessity for more
food to keep up the natural heat OF
ne system. To use the concentrated
heating foods to warm the animal
while the winds of winter are allowed
to chill her, is burning up corn as fuel
in a more wasteful way than the Kan
sas farmers did when they put it in
their stoves as costing less than
coal
Perhaps there is a happy medium
between an enforced exposure each
day to the outside temperature in
winter, and an enforced confinement
for six months, and Vie used to think
that if we had a stable with the
modern improvements that allowed
us to feed and water in the stables
each time, and care for the animals
at comfortable temperature for them
and ourselves, we would still le, them
out when the sun shone brightly and
the air outside was above the freez-
ing point, or even if a little below 1T,
if there was not wind to make it felt
too severely But we have noticed
that those who tried that plan soon
made their days outside less frequent
and shorter They did not find the
COWS taking the exercise they were