Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1911-12-12
Danger In Forcing.

| D. s. s., East Schodack, N. T., writes: !:
lQ) We have COW, just freshened, that
gives bloody milk from one quarter.
The calf has been nursing about one
week. Can we do anything for her? (2)
We are milking sixteen cows fresh dur
ing October, and want to get all the milk
possible. Please give us formula for
ration composed of gluten feed, cotton
seed meal and buckwheat middlings.
We feed ensilage morning and night and
cornstalks for the noon feed. Cotton
seed costs $34, gluten feed s3l, buck
wheat middlings S26, oilmeal S43 and
wheat middlings or bran S32.
(l) Take the calf from her the first
thing. Then give her dram doses of
exicated sulphate of iron morning and
night in her feed of meal as long as
necessary. In case she is large mixer
it will be well to milk her three times a
day. (2) Oh, brother, cut out that part
of the sentence which reads "all the
milk possible" do not like to advise
men along lines that will terminate in
the premature ruin OF their best cows.
Now, l could, out Of the foods you
name, formulate a ration that would
make your COWS produce milk ITO beat
the band" as the boys say, but some of
your cows would fail to get In calf,
others would be likely to abort, some
would sicken In the stomach after q
month and others would likely produce
gargety milk. You would be getting
for time lots of milk, but you would
at the same time be paving the way for
some veterinarian to get some OF the
proceeds of your milk check and some
butcher would be buying beef cows of
you that were right in the prime of life.
Cottonseed is great milk producer, but
it has got to be fed sparingly or trouble
will follow along the lines mentioned.
Thus l am going to advise you first to
be content with good paying flow of
milk and not strive to get all the milk 1t
is possible to make the cow produce.
Ny advice is to drop either the cotton
seed or gluten entirely. My reason for
saying this is that much OF the gluten
feeds on the market is 30 largely COM
posed of cottonseed meal (gluten feeds,
mean, not gluten meaD. Again cot
tonseed meal is not fit to feed except
when fresh. The light yellow meal is
the only safe meal to feed, and then it
needs to be mixed in some bulky grain
foods or else carefully mixed with your
ensilage-not thrown on top for the cow
to lick off the ensilage.
Now let us get down to your question
A 1000 pound COW will usually eat, d.
gest and make good use of twenty
pounds of good corn ensilage at one
meal. This will furnish Is of q pound
of protein that is digestible and little
more than two and one-half pounds OF
carbohy ydrates, and If TWEEN ty pounds are
fed again at night the COW will have
eaten of digestible protein .36 100 OF
digestible prot elm, which is little more
than one-third of pound OF protein.
Now if fed a twenty-pound bundle OF
cornstalks at noon she will eat OF them
not far from twelve pounds OF the stalk,
very nearly as much protein and carbo-
hydrates as she will get In the ensilage.
Hence she will have had herself sup.
piled with practically two-thirds of
pound of digestible protein and not
quite ten and one-third pounds Of carbo-
hydrstes.
As she will need under ordinary con-
ditions over fourteen or fifteen pounds
of carbohydrates in twenty -four hours
when in full flow of milk she will have
two-thirds as much as she needs OF the
carbon ydrates, and as she will need
about two and one-half pounds OF di.
gestible protein when In full flow OF
milk, she would be lacking practically
thirty-eight ounces of protein and five
pounds of the carbohydrates. Now,
were you to make mixture OF eight
pounds of buckwheat middlings, 1t
would give you one and three-quarters
pounds Of digestible protein and little
over three and one-half pounds OF the
carbohydrates. Were you to add two
and one half pounds of cottonseed meal
to the eight pounds of the buckwheat
middlings for days feed, feeding it
with the ensilage morning and night to
every one thousand pounds weight of
COW, the average COW would be getting
safe milk producing ration and also
good production of milk. An extra
large mixer might eat little more OF
the grain mixture In case she was a
heavy feeder. A cow that was not of
the best appetite and digestion would
not make good use of as much OF either
the ensilage or the mixture. l am not
giving you this as an ideal milk ration,
but as good, safe one out of the foods
you desire to use in making up the ra-
tion. More cottonseed would likely
cause trouble along the lines mentioned.
c. D. Smead, V. s., in Tribune Farm
or.