Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1904-01-04
Cheap Feed For Milk and Eutter.

Cheap Feed For Milk and Butter.
II. G. D., of Roanoke, writes:
sPlease tell me the best feed for COWS
to produce milk. Do you advise feed
ing ~cottonseed meal, and in what guam
tity?"
Answer: The very best food for a
dairy COW is good bluegrass. You can
produce milk more cheaply in this way
and with less trouble nan by any other
means. OF course, bluegrass is not
available all the year, and for the Win
ter feeding of the COW some substi-
tute for grass must be found. The
dairy COW gives her best results when
receiving a %succulent ration. For this
reason silage is considered one Of the
best winter feeds for COWS.
Silage, as you know, may be made
from corn, sorghum, COW peas, clover
or other farm crops. The greater part
of the silage used is made from corn.
This is because Of the large yields OBJ
tanned, and the economy with which
the crop can be produced. When the
corn is we'll cared and glazed, and some
of the lower leaves beginning to fire,
it is in condition to be put in the silo.
The silo may be constructed on the
same principle as I water tank. The
idea is to exclude the air and prevent
fermentation. The green corn is cut
up fine and run into the silo and packed
down firmly. and will then keep for
long periods, and can be fed to COWS
as needed.
When silage can not be had, roots
are often used, but root crops can not
be produced as economically in the
South as silage, and the climate does
not favor their growth as much as it
to have a silo, if you are feeding a
considerable number OF cows.
If you are without a silo, the ques-
ton resolves itself into some method
of feeding economically at the present
time. 1t you can obtain an abundance
of corn stalks to be shredded or cut up,
this will furnish a fairly good rough
ness for your dairy animals, provided
you feed along with say twenty pounds
of fodder, ten pounds of good clover
hay besides some wheat bran and cot
tonseed meal. In order to make the
shredded stover more %palatable, it may
be sprinkled with water and the meal
scattered over it and the whole mixed
together with a fork. This will neces-
state the animals eating up much
more of the shredded stover than they
otherwise might do; and the prodEc-
ton of cheap milk and butter depends
very largely in making the COWS con-
sumo a considerable quantity of dry
roughness, which always provides the
cheapest part of the ration. If you
cannot obtain corn stalks, you can, of
course, feed your COWS Oh mixed hay
and grain. This is often an expensive
ration. If With your mixed hay you
can secure some clover or COW pea
hay, it will provide a better variety
for the COW.
AS to the concentrates, you may feed
wheat bran at the rate of six to eight
pounds per day for each thousand
pounds of live weight, and to this you
may add two to four pounds of cotton
seed meal. Cottonseed meal may be
fed With perfect safety in reasonable
quantity TO dairy cows, and as it is so
rich in protein, an element which the
cow requires for the economical pro-
duction of milk and butter, it furnishes
a cheap and excellent supplementary
concentrate to wheat bran. If wheat
bran costs you more than $50 a ton,
you can feed one-half corn and cob
meal and one-half cottonseed meal. In
this case you would not feed over six
to eight pounds Of the mixture per day
to a thousand-pound cow. If you find
it difficult to secure corn meal, you can
use one-third wheat bran, one-third
middlings and one-third c%ottonseed
meal to advantage.
The amount Of grain that should be
fed to a cow will depend on her milk
flow. If she is giving three to five
gallons a day, she should be fed liber-
ally twelve to fifteen pounds per day.
One must use judgment in feeding a
COW, and no definite rules can be laid
down. Where the COW is giving a
small flow of milk, six to eight pounds
of grain per day would be sufficient.
Corn and other fattening grains should
not be fed as the sole concentrates to
dairy coWs.-Andrew NJ. Soule.