The Bulletin 57 



the protein and fat, provided, of course, these elements are supplied in suf- 

 ficient quantities. But if protein is withheld there is nothing to take its 

 place — the animal dies. Or if there is some in the feed but the amount is 

 insufficient while the animal is young the result is a stunted growth and 

 poorly developed animal for life. The explanation of this is that carbohy- 

 drates are made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Pat is also made up 

 of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, but relatively much more carbon. Protein 

 is made up of nitrogen and sulphur in addition to carbon, hydrogen and 

 oxygen. While the latter three elements are found in all three compounds, 

 and are more or less interchangeable from one to another, nitrogen is only 

 found in the one, and being so essential to life, it must be supplied. 



FUNCTION AND FEED OF THE DAIRY COW. 



The function of a dairy cow is to convert the energy found in rough feeds 

 into a form at once palatable and digestible to animals that otherwise could 

 not use this energy. In this respect she is like a machine. The coarse, un- 

 wieldy product is fed to the cow machine to be manufactured into milk. 

 After exacting her toll for body maintenance and work of changing feed to 

 milk, according to Jordan, about twenty-six per cent of the digestible energy 

 in the feed is returned in milk. He bases his calculations on a typical 870- 

 pound dairy cow producing 20 pounds of milk from 15.5 pounds of digestible 

 feed, with an abundance of water. This factor, however, is exceedingly 

 variable, even aside from digestibility. 



A prime requisite for a maximum milk flow is that the cow be full. To 

 this end a bountiful supply of relatively cheap feed should be supplied from 

 forage crops. Chief among the sources for supplying this cheap bulky feed 

 is the corn plant where silos are available for preserving the cut stalks. 

 Silage is preeminently the filler for the spacious stomach of dairy cattle. 

 Corn for silage should not be cut until after the shuck turns brown and the 

 kernels begin to glaze. However it is generally found to be good practice to 

 supplement silage with a small allowance of a good legume hay or, in the 

 absence of this, corn stover or non-leguminous hay may be substituted. There 

 are so many farmers owning only one or two cows who cannot afford a silo 

 that some other roughage must be provided. For North Carolina, cowpea 

 and soy bean hay easily take first rank. The clovers and oats and vetch are 

 also popular feeds. In too many instances cows in this State are forced to 

 subsist, and expected to produce milk, on corn shucks and corn tops, or wheat 

 or oat straw, along with a small allowance of cottonseed meal and hulls. 



Thirty pounds of silage and ten pounds of a good hay, along with a rea- 

 sonable allowance of grain, is about all that the average grade dairy cow- 

 in this State can be induced to eat. However, in the economical manage- 

 ment of a dairy herd, the aim of the feeder should be to furnish the cows 

 with all the so-called roughage they will consume without leaving any. 



Where pasturage is available through the summer months the feeding 

 problem is greatly simplified. Large dairies are usually located near cities 

 where land is so valuable that the owner finds it more profitable to devote 

 his limited acreage to silage corn production than to pasture. There are 

 many dairymen, however, who depend largely on pasture crops for spring 

 and summer feeding, and who improve their pasture land. 



In addition to the specially prepared permanent pasture of mixed grasses 

 and clovers, an abundance of rye is sown in the fall for early spring grazing, 

 and the residue turned into the land for soil improvement. Farmers keep- 

 ing only a few cows for family use generally have either a permanent unim- 

 proved pasture or grazing land from which the animals are expected to draw 

 the greater part of their living through the spring and summer months. 

 Exceptional cases are known to the writer where cows have produced a good 

 flow of milk from pasture alone, receiving no grain ration whatever. 



Soiling is but little practiced in this State. It has generally proven un- 

 economic and unsatisfactory to be forced to gather feed every day regardless 

 of weather conditions or other factors. There are a few who still practice 

 this method in a limited way and flnd it profitable, but this is rarely if ever 

 the case where a silo exists. 



For a succulent feed in the fall and winter on farms where there is no 



