No. 7. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



303 



The richer the food in protein, the richer the manure in nitrogen, 

 and it is much cheaper to buy nitrogen in feed and apply it to the 

 fields through stable manure, than to buy it in the form of commer- 

 cial fertilizer. 



Bran ._ 



Corn 



Oats, .-- 



Gluten feed, 



Ajax, - 



Linseed meal, .. 

 Cottonseed meal, 



.$9 75 



6 2o 



7 25 

 18 50 

 23 50 

 26 50 

 33 75 



The fertilizing value of cottonseed meal is equal to its market 

 price and although the dairyman cannot expect to recover in the 

 manure all of the nitrogen of the feed, he ought to save four-fifths 

 of it. Under present prices and conditions it is much better for 

 the dairyman to spend his fertilizer money for the cheaper phos- 

 phoric acid and jjotash and obtain the needed nitrogen by the pur- 

 chase of concentrated feeds. 



Most writers and speakers say that the full standard ration for 

 the dairy cow should be fed when she is in full flow of milk and 

 that later on as the milk flow decreases the amount of grain should 

 be correspondingly lessened. My practice has been difl'erent. I 

 have fed a maximum of grain to the cows fresh in milk and have 

 reduced this only in slight amount until the cows became dry. Dur- 

 ing the latter part of the milking period the food of the cow must 

 supply the ingredients for the milk produced and must also fur- 

 nish everything necessary for the growth of the calf. No exact state- 

 ment can be made as to how much extra protein the cow must con- 

 sume for the needs of the calf, but it is probably not far out of the 

 way to say that the growth of the calf to the time of its birth re- 

 quires as much food as would be needed for the production of an 

 extra thousand pounds of milk. But I believe in heavy grain feed- 

 ing to the cow in the latter part of the lactation period, for still an- 

 other reason. It seems to have been pretty definitely settled that a 

 cow gives more milk and makes more butter in a year, the fatter 

 she is at the time of calving. Now that milk-fever has ceased to be 

 a menace, no dairyman can afford to have his cows in poor flesh at 

 calving-time. 



Summary — Use such highly nitrogenous grains in the dairy ration, 

 that the cow is always receiving an excess of digestible protein. 

 Continue this heavy protein feeding throughout the milking period. 



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