200 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



bringing in the greatest profit to their owners are those producing 

 the largest amounts. A cow producing ten pounds of milk per day 

 requires practically as much roughage as one of the same size pro- 

 ducing three times as much. It takes the same amount of milk 

 or butter fat from either to pay for this roughage, hence the cow 

 producing the most has that much left over and above that of the 

 ten pounds per day cow to pay for her grain and bring in a profit. 

 In a comparison of the roughages, clover and alfalfa hay have re- 

 quired the least amount of grain to be fed with them. However, there 

 is one exception. Mr. Howland has excellent oat and pea hay. He 

 fed good clover hay most of the winter and then he changed from 

 the clover to the pea and oat hay and on the same grain ration, most 

 of his cows showed a slight increase in their daily milk yield. Twen- 

 ty-five of the 29 farmers in the association have silos, but this past 

 year on account of the early frost there was not as much silage as 

 usual, and the corn crop had to be put into the silo before mature, 

 so that the corn silage did not show up as well as it would have if it 

 had been of a better quality. Every farmer with a silo has to use 

 some oil meal with his silage in order to make it laxative enough for 

 the good health of the cows. Most of the clover during the winter 

 of 1912-13 was killed by frost so that the dry roughage was mostly 

 timothy. When the silage was gone and timothy hay the sole rough- 

 age there was not as much of a drop in milk yield on the same basis 

 of grain as might be expected. That is, when they put enough oil 

 meal in the grain to make the droppings as loose as they were when 

 silage was fed. When the grain ration was kept laxative all winter 

 it showed to quite an advantage both in the health of the cows and 

 in their milk flow. Those cows whose bowels were not kept loose 

 being prone to occasional feverish udders, indigestion and in lower 

 milk yields. The point of keeping a cow's bowels in loose condition, 

 both before calving and while in lactation cannot be emphasized too 

 much. 



With four or five exceptions, the farmers used balanced rations, 

 either of mine or their own make up. These were all computed with 

 the ideas in view of bulk, palatability, variety, cost and healthful- 

 ness of the cow. Some of the practices of the farmers which go 

 along with good feeding and help increase the milk production are: 



1 — Regularity in milking. 



2 — Having the same milker for each cow all the time. 



3 — Regularity in time of feeding. 



4 — Keeping the cows well bedded. 



5 — Keeping the cows curried ofif. 



G— Feeding salt daily or keeping it where they may have access 

 to it at all times, also water. 



7 — Kindness to the cows. 



8 — Allowing a rest of four or eight weeks between lactation 

 periods and feeding during this time. 



This is the ninth month of testing and almost without exception, 

 the farmers are satisfied. A renter who was in the association at the 

 start, but since has left the farm said that if he had been in the 

 Cow Testing Association ten years ago he would have had a farm of 

 his own by this time instead of being a renter with scrub cows and 

 never improving them all this time. Another renter could not be 



