Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1908-10-14
COLLEGE COWS
FOR GOOD PROFITS
FEEDING AND PROPER CARE
ARE ESSENTIAL FOR BEST
RESULTS.
INDIVIDUAL COWS SHOW REC.
oRos OF RETURNS MOST
GRATIFYING.
Madison. Oct. 8.

Madison. Oct 8.
With herd average of 713s4
pounds of milk containing 305 o.
pounds of butterfat which tested
4.29 per cent fat. the college of agri-
culture of the University of Wiscon.
sin has demonstrated the economy of
scientific methods in care and feed.
ing The system followed has been
fully outlined in bulletin 167 of the
Wisconsin experiment station by Pro
fessors G. c. Humphrey and F. w
Vol. just off the press. The herd is
maintained for research and instruc.
tional purposes, with the aim, how.
ever, to make it return the best Dos
sible revenue under existing cond-
tions. These special uses prevent re-
turns being as high as would be the
case were the herd wholly on a com
mercial basis.
Feeding and Care.
The feeds used consisted largely of
such farm grown feeds as are readily
available on most dairy farms in Wis.
consin. This is the second year of
fedng rations comparatively wide in
nutritive ratios, and this system will
be continued another year to secure
data from which to make reliable con.
illusions. The results obtained in the
last two years feeding experiments
show that rations made up mainly of
farm grown feeds will when properly
fed to the right kind of cows, produce
large and economical yields. Dairy
farmers may therefore safely adopt
such a system Oh feeding pending the
completion of this investigation, with
considerable assurance that 1t will
prove satisfactory.
For winter feeding the standard
grain mixture includes wheat bran,
cornmeal and distillers' grains in the
proportion of 3:4:3, the nutritive
ratio being LAB. The plan followed
was to feed as many pounds of grain
feed daily per COW as she produced
pounds OF butter fat during the week,
or seven times as much grain as the
amount of fat produced daily. The
cows received as much hay and sill
age as they woul eat up clean, usual
" requiring 25 to 40 pounds of silage
and to 3 ,ounds OF hay daily, Care
full records have been kept of feed
and production. In summer the cows
were on pasture, and were fed green
corn and corn silage to supplement
dry pasture during the late summer
Some grain was used during the sum
mer for nearly all the cows.
In the winter cows are confined
to the barn. except for a short time
| in the middle of the day, when they
! are allowed to exercise in the yard.
They are wAtered twice daily in ce-
ment trcughs in the barn. Most OF
1 the rcws are MIXED at AIS In the
morning and afternoon. while ftash,
heavy mixers are MIXED three times
day, at 4 and 1880 in the morning,
aud 1880 at night.
Some Great Records.
| The FIVE best cows of the herd in
clude several that were record pro-
| ducers In previous wears. These five
pest TsCOTuS are as IOilOWS. johanna,
Holstein, 1G,1s62 pounds milk 447.96
pounds fat, average test 1862 per
cent, net profit 1851; Macella, Jer-
sey, 1881 pounds milk. 442.33
pounds butter fat, average test SOS
per cent. net profit, $S0.01; Margaret
Guernsey, 1862 z pounds milk 4O3.25
pounds fat, average lest 4.66 per cent,
net profit. $1,000; Muriel, grade
Guernsey, 6,792.S pounds milk 1894
pounds fat. average test COS per
cent, net profit $73.39; Christ.ana.
Ayrshire, 9.037.4 pounds milk, 366.5S
pounds fat. average test 4-0G per
cent. net profit s662l.
These net profits do not include the
cost of labor, maintenance of barns,
or the value of the calves from the
various cows. Since four of these
were pure bred, they were worth
about $3.50 at * months of age, with
a feed cost of SIS per head up 10 that
| time.