The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1911-10-06
FEEDING DAIRY COWS


one can find an argument that will
stand the test against this fact. 1t
is unbusinesslike and unscientifc
to feed all dairy COWS the same grain
ration. To trust entirely to ones
judgment as to the amount that
each cow should be fed, puts q
great deal of responsibility upon
the feeder. Where farmer has a
few cows and feeds them himself,
if he has good Judgment as to feed
ing, he probably can get the best
results out of this manner of feed
ing, but where one has CONNER
cial herd of COWS, and has to de-
pend almost entirely upon hired
help to feed them, some rule should
be established in feeding so that
the COWS will not be overfed or I'M
derfed, and will at the same time
give the COW that produces the most
milk, the most grain. am not
very much of a stickler on the
amount of roughage. This can be
left entirely to the feeder and to
the COW. Feed the cow all the corn
silage she will eat up clean twice a
day, and don't waste it, feed the
cow all the clover hay she will eat
up twice a day, and the same way
with all the rest of the roughage
ration that is fed. This is a simple
matter. There is not very much
danger from overlooking as it is
prae tically impossible to overfeed a
COW on roughage. She won't eat
enough to hurt her. But it is easy
to overfeed COW on grain, especial
ly some COWS on some kinds of grain,
because it is well known fact that
cows sometimes develop wonder
full appetite for particular kind Of
grain and they will eat almost all
that you care to give them. They
will eat more than they ought to
eat, more than is good for them to
eat. and if a feeder would keep
feeding a cow and increasing the
grain ration to find out how much
he could feed her he would soon
have her out Of condition, and pos
sibly sick. 1t requires nice judy
ment to feed COW in this way and
it requires very painstaking man,
one who observes every condition
about the COW, and with CONNER
cial herd where one depends almost
entirely on hired help, it is not
practical. I have been studying this
question a great deal the last few
years. Someone has advised a rule
to feed cow grain in proportion to
the number of pounds of milk they
give in q day. The rule would be
to give pound of grain for every
three or four pounds Of milk which
the cow gives, but this is not scien-
tific because milk differs so in quail
ty. One COW gives five per cent
butter-fat in her milk and the other
COW gives three per cent. The cow
that gives three per cent undoubted-
ly gives the most milk, she ought
to anyway, and she does. Now,
then, milk that is rich in butter
fat is also rich in other solids, casein
and buttermilk sugar, therefore, ii
you feed these COWS in proportion
to the amount of milk which they
give, the COW that is giving the rich
milk doesn't grain in proportion to
the COW that gives the poorer milk,
and T believe that the Wisconsin
Experiment Station rule to feed a
COW in proportion to the butter-fat
which she produces is correct in
principle, and I don't think you
can get better rule than to feed
COW as many pounds day of grain
as she produces pounds of butter
| fat in a week.-Michigan Farmer