Middletown transcript., 1905-11-25
ON CARE OF DAIRY COWS
Characters and Location of Barn, and
Exercise in Winter are Points that
Require Attention

by the term "dairy cow we mean q
cow that is cared for and fed to produce
milk. If the dairy COW is not pure bred
Holst.in, Guernsey or Jersey. she usually
has scme ,r large part, OF the blood
OF one /, / nose breeds in her veins. Con.
sequently they require better care than q
scrub, because they have been used to
good care and good conditions and un.
der such conditions will do better than
the scrub 1t is the purpose of this arti-
Gle to give some little pointers that will
help the dairy farmer to bring in few
more dollars and cents.
''In the first place, where do you keep
your COWS in winter? A barn in low
yard where the mud is always deep is a
mighty poor place to keep cows, but un-
fortunately this is the case with too many
OF our dairy barns. The germs of dis
ease are very fond OF low, wet, undrained
places and tl.ey thrive in such. If your
barn is located in place of this descrip-
tion Your cattle are, therefore, exposed to
disease, and if they are in any way weak
'entd by poor care or other bad conditions
they become very susceptible to tubercu-
losis. Keep the barn and yard drained
and, ou will lessen the death rate from
that disease.
'As regards ventilation and tempeia-
ture, there are two very common ex-
tremes. Jones, on one side of the road,
keeps his barn shut up tight like box,
SO that there is not bit of fresh air cir
culating through the stalls and the barn
is stuffy and unhealthy from the lack of
oxygen. Smith on the other side of the
road, has wicker basket, as it were, for
a COW barn. All night long the doors
slam to and fro and in the breath of the
rushing, freezing wind the COWS shiver
and use up the feed, in trying to keep
warm, that should be turned in milk
Then Smith wonders why his COWS don't
pay. Try to keep the temperature some
where between 40 and so degrees. Don't
let the COWS stand in draught Have
hinges on the lower edge of one or two OF
the small windows so that they will open
inward. Open them three or four inches;
this will give the incoming air direction
towards the ceiling and thus prevent a
direct draught on the COWS. 1t will not
take long to fix window or two that way
and it will not cost much.
Perhaps Jones keeps his COWS in all
day and gives them no exercise. He
wonders why they get off feed so easily
and why the calves are so weak. Smith
let's his cows run out all afternoon and
after they have all the exercise that is
necessary, lets them stand till feeding
time out in the cold.
''The food that should be used for fur
nishing energy for making milk is used up
in keeping the shivering COWS from freez-
ing to death. 1t does not pay to treat the
old COW that way. Turn her out during
the best part OF the day, long enough to
walk around a bit and get chew from the
straw pile and drink of water with the
chill off it. 1t takes more money out OF
your creamery dividends in year to let
her heat up her water after she drinks it,
than it would to buy directly good
common sense tank heater. Don't let
her out in damp, snowy weather though,
or expose her TO that sharp biting wind
that comes in our cold spells.
"You,know your own conditions and
Use your own good Judge.
ment and com non sense" P. D. South
worth in Northeastern Agriculturist.