DAIRY MEETING. I45 



grow corn, by all means grow roots of some kind. Undoubt- 

 edly, for your milking cows, mangels or sugar beets would be 

 the most advisable. For the young stock and dry cows you 

 might grow turnips. To summarize, in making up your dairy 

 ration, make it bulky, make it to fit the needs of your cows, 

 make it as economical as possible and be sure to have some 

 succulent feed in it. 



Ques. How wide or narrow a ration would you recommend 

 to use regularly? 



Ans. We are using a ration that will range from 1 15 to i :6. 

 Part of the time it goes above i :6. That will vary, of course, 

 according to the amount that the cows are producing. 

 . Ques. Do you allow young heifers, from two months up, 

 to run out-of-doors in the winter? Do you think it will make 

 them stronger, better animals? 



Ans. I think in the course of ten years you will find every 

 dairyman growing his calves in that way. I would start them 

 in reasonably warm quarters because they are tender, but I 

 would gradually harden them up until when they are a few 

 months of age if it was possible I would give them a chance to 

 run in and out, about the same way we handle our sheep. I 

 know of one breeder who is keeping about 250 head of cattle.. 

 The last time I visited him I made inquiry, and learned that 

 they are letting their calves run out at will. This breeder has 

 practically proved that he is getting hardier cows than where 

 the calves are penned up or tied up. 



Ques. What do you think of salting calves? 



Ans. In studying into the needs of the dairy cow in regard 

 to salt, we find that they vary greatly, and we really know very 

 little about the amount of salt they actually receive in the 

 food they are getting, — the amount that is already in the food. 

 If I were feeding cows I should prefer that they have a place 

 to get at salt and eat what they wanted, only making sure that 

 the salt was there all the time. We usually mix it with the 

 grain because depending on help we are more sure that they 

 get a little of it. 



Ques. Isn't it true that dairymen today as a rule are suc- 

 cessfully feeding a wider ration than they thought they could 

 a few years ago? 



Ans. By all odds, and in some of the states they are feeding 



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