Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1909-03-16
intelligent Handling Of Herds.

1t seems to be accepted az fact 0y
students of dairying that the average
COW produces about $50 to 100 pounds
of butter during the milking season or
lacteal period, and that this about pays
for the cost of the feed given her on the
average farm. The real profits Of dairy
ing, therefore, are made from cows that
give over the average, just as the profits
from corn growing are on crops over the
average, the profits in both cases being
proportionate to the excess over the
average yield.
It is very important problem, how
ever, to determine whether this low
rated yield of the average COW Is due to
the COW or the man who provides her
feed and shelter and does the milking.
We have been much impressed with the
reports that have been furnished by the
various experiment stations, showing
that where these average cows have
been bought up from the average farmer
and given superior care some of them
develop into 800 pound cows, some $50,
and some 200, and all Of them increase
their yield more or less. In other
words, when these cows are fed right
and sheltered right they do business.
Hence we are beginning to conclude that
the fault is not so much in the COW as in
the dairyman; though there are some
cows of such pronounced beef type that
If you improve their feed they will sim
ply take on fat. There are other COWS
that put the proceeds of the feeding in
the pail.
The reader may inquire: What is it
that these college fellows do to these
average cows that produces such decid-
ed results? Three things: First, they
give them better shelter than the farm
or usually gives his cows; second, they
give them balanced ration; and third,
handle them more skillfully.' If the
farmer will do these things, which he
usually can, he will get quite as good re-
suits as are obtaiAble at these expert
meut stations. If he will use the scales
and the Babcock test he can determine
precisely what results he is getting, and
know what cows to sell for beef and
which to retain in his dairy.
If we are asked what changes they
make in the ration we can perhaps an
swer far better by telling what they
don't do than what they actually feed.
They don't expect to get milk without
feed, or her full profit without feeding
the COW to her full capacity, or, in plain
English, giving her all she wants to eat.
They regard the COW as machine that
must furnish power enough to run the
machine itself and in addition power
enough to do business. Hence they give
her all she wants to eat.
Then they try to give her milk making
material. Hence they do not give her
diet of corn and timothy hay alone.
They do not give her diet Of corn and
millet hay alone, or . corn fodder and
oats straw with corn. These are not
milk producing feeds; and no matter
how good COW you have and how great
her milk potency, you won't get results
at one end of the machine unless you
put in the raw material at the other end.
You then ask: What do they feedp
That depends on what feed is available.
In the alfalfa sections they will give her
Is or 20 pounds of alfalfa and perhaps s
pounds of corn, and that brings the an
swer. You could not get better bal
anced ration than that, except, perhaps
by adding some few other things of the
same general character to give variety;
that's ALL Where silage and clover or
alfalfa hay are available, they will give
the COW from 80 to 40 pounds of silage
and what clover or alfalfa hay she will
eat, and that brings the answer. In
other sections they will give bran and
corn in the proportion say of three parts
of bran to one of corn, together with
corn fodder. But always and every |
where they give milk making ration,
which does not differ very widely from
the ration that should be given to any |
kind of young stock, and give the nitrog- |
enous portion of it in proportion to the
amount of milk given.
As we were riding down town on the |
street car the other day q gentleman
complained to us that his hens refused
to lay when eggs were forty cents q
dozen. He said that out of two dozen
hens he got one egg day. he further
complained that he had just paid out
five dollars for corn to feed those chick |
ems, and yet the pesky things would not
lay. We told him that he was using the
best means We knew of to keep hens |
from laying by giving them an unbalanc-
ed ration.
In this he was not much more short |
sighted than the farmer who gives his |
COW all the corn she will eat, and what |
timothy hay she wants, and expects her
to furnish a paying quantity of milk. |
Hence we conclude that the cow gets
whole lot of blame that should be visit |
cd upon her owner.-Wallace Farmer.