TiiiKTY-sixTH Annual Convention 971 



through the cold winter, aud it nnisr liave a wonderful effect in 

 stimulating the flow of milk. Wo jiin our faith upon clover, 

 alfalfa, and corn silage, but to get the most out of the dairy cows 

 with capacity we must have something besides these bulky feeds, 

 a concentrated ration. It should be richer in protein than corn 

 silage because it is to supplement the wide ration of 1 to 12 in 

 corn silage. We can raise it on our own farms if we want to, prob- 

 ably by growing soy beans but surely by growing Canada field peas. 

 Mix the peas with oats ; the oat plant will hold up the pea vine so 

 that you can harvest in the modern wav with a binder. Do not 

 make hay out of them; ripen and thresh them. Grind the grain 

 and feed it to the dairy cow and you can have upon your own farm 

 a complete balanced ration, balanced so far as food is concerned 

 and so far as the bulky part of the ration is concerned. Of course 

 it rests with the dairy farmer as a business man to find out whether 

 or not he can raise this mixture of concentrated protein cheaper 

 than he can buy it. It is a question to be determined with a lead 

 pencil and a paper pad. If you can buy Buffalo gluten feed or 

 cottonseed meal or distillers' grains or any of the numerous by- 

 products which we have in this comitry, and get your pound of 

 digestible protein cheaper than you can grow it in the field, it is 

 only a business proposition to do it. But we can raise them on 

 our own farms, and that is what we have farms for ; to raise feed 

 for the dairy cows. It is a question that we all ought to consider 

 carefully. 



There is another thing. It is necessary on the dairy farm to 

 have bedding as well as feed. I do not see how the dairyman can 

 get along without one crop which is raised primarily to bed 

 the cows, to make them comfortable and keep them clean. Per- 

 haps you will laugh when I saj^ I can aff'ord to raise wheat, 

 and yet I believe that as a dairy farmer I can afford to 

 grow wheat as one crop in the rotation because I want the straw 

 for bedding, ^ly friends, I have had a seven-year average of 30 

 bushels of wheat to the acre without plowing for the wheat. We 

 put the corn into the silo, cultivate the ground and sow to 

 wheat. I believe that there is profit in growing wheat under that 

 system even in the state of ]\richigan, and it gives me bedding 

 that I would have to go outside of the farm and pay $10 or $12 



