Rocky Ford enterprise., 1904-02-12
LIVE STOCK
ON THE FARM!
A Valuable Paper Read Before the
Recent Farmers Institute by Prof.
Griffith OF Agricultural College.


Fertility Of tho Soil. On frs, thought
one would suppose ,ha, We could not
afford To keep live stock on our high
priced lands. We know that our COM
mon stock will not return enough profit
,o give them entire sway on our highly
developed irrigated lands. Upon further
though, NC find ,ha, NC can not long
continue To se, the prof, from our soil in
the future 'ha, NC have In the past un-
less VIC adop, some method Of returning
fertility Ia the soil In the form Of ma
liners. In Holland the yearly value oi
the liquid and solid cacfcamcnis from
each mature animal is valued a, about
fifteen dollars. On account Of the lack
of humus in our Colorado soils. stable
manure can never he entirely replaced
by commercial fertilizers. Prof. Curtis
Of Iowa says that in selling one thousand
dollars worth Of hay from the farm We
remove about two thirds ila, amour, oi
fertility: in selling one thousand dollars
worth OF grain from the farm VIC remove
abou, onc.hali that amount Of icr,ilising
value while in selling one thousand dol
lars worth Of meat from the farm prac-
,ically no fertility is lost. We see then
iha, Tor the hes, proii, in the end We can
no, entirely dispense with live stock on
the farm. We may keep them ,hefe
permanently or only bring them there TO
iatirn.
Keeping Dairy Cows. The farmer
should keep cows both to produce milk
and butter and also mca, for III. table.
The cows will ca; a grca, deal Of food
that world otherwise return no pariic-
ular value. Such foods are bee; pulp.
beet tops and alfalfa siubblc that re-
mains in the fields after the las, cutting
is removed. As general proposition
We do not have pasture for cows on our
farms and We can not afford TO sow pas
turc grasses for this purpose. The
method OF soiling feeding the freshly
cut crops to the animals in the stalls or
cDralls-cin be practiccd proiitably.
One acre OF average alfalfa will furnish
sufficient green feed from the middle Ct
May until the first heavy iros, for three
cows. There is no danger Of bloat II
wet alfalfa is not fed and providing no,
more than ninety pounds arc fed daily.
The cows should be fed four times day.
Fresh forage should be cut at least
once every ether day. The profitable
dairy coS nigh, be described as a ma
chine that is able to turn a large
amount Of feed into milk. Relatively
the largest eaters are the most profitable.
thcrcf ,rc COW to be a good milk COW
should have large digestive system.
The secretion Of milk primarily depends
on maternity. A mo,herly COW then is
the ideal. Milk is sccrcated in small
glands of the uddcr. The glands are
supplied from the blood, large flow OF
blood is necessary and then large uddcr
with good spongy texture is always
found in large producers. A dairy COW
is nervous animal and must have great
vitality. The sign of vitality is found in
the size and fullness of the chest. The
ches, is the inside cavity where is located
the heart and lungs. The only way for
us to Judge of this cavity is by the breadth
depth and fullncss of the body surround
ing the chest To build up herd of
large producing cows one must practice
rigid selection and dispose of all unprofit-
al, beasts. l believe that the dual-Yu. o
pose cows milk and meat-will prove
most profitable in this valley.
Keeping Hogs. There arc very few
hogs kept in this state-only about Ioo,-
600. OF all our classes of live stock, hogs
make the best Use of food fed them.
They will make a pound of growth on
less digestiblc nutrincnts than any other
one of our domesticatcd animals. Alfalfa
is very reliable pasture grass for hogs.
On the college farm at Fort Collins, last
year, we pastured hogs on alfalfa, feeding
literally of grain in addition 10 the pas
,urc Figuring feeds and grains at local
market prices, the land so pasturcd netted
Sd5 o5 per acre, and there was no time
from MAY Ist to Oct. 2S-thc dates be-
tween which our results are fgurcd-that
the pasture would not have carried twice
the number of hogs. Mr.. Dyksterhuis OF
Granada, Colo, said recently that he
kept last summer one hundred and fifty
head of hogs, large and small, on eight
acres of alfalfa. Sugar bects are an cx-
cellcnt food for hog, and especially for
breeding sows. Our experiments show
that the beet alone is a inaintaiuance ra-