STATE DAIRY ASSOCIATION. 293 



COTTON SEED MEAL. 



Mr. Is cotton seed meal a good feed? 



Mr. Haecker — It is very satisfactory. I would not want to use a 

 large proportion of it in the ration, but there is no objection to one or 

 two pounds, or even three ]:x)unds. I would not use any more than four 

 pounds of corn meal per day per cow. I find if you go above that you 

 are apt to have inflammation of the udder, but if you restrict it to 

 about four pounds per thousand pound weight per cow, you will have 

 no difficulty with it. With us in Minnesota we use considerable barley, 

 it is not quite so heating as corn. We give each cow 4 pounds corn, 

 2 pounds barley, 3 pounds oats and one pound of oil meal. That makes 

 a very satisfactory ration for a common cow. I would just as leave use 

 cotton seed meal, or nearly so, as oil meal, it would provide a little 

 more protein. This ration will not do for high type dairy cows, as we 

 found in our third winter's experiment with that ration ; for the cows 

 that give more than 300 pounds of butter a year this ration will not be 

 satisfactory, but for cows that give 250 pounds a year, this is ample. 

 For good dairy cows that give 300 pounds of butter, I would take off 

 one pound of corn meal and add an additional pound of oil meal. 



Mr. How many pounds of that mixture do you feed? 



Mr. Haecker — The herd this winter averages eight pounds, it ranges 

 from 5 to 12 according to the yield of milk. The highest feed that any 

 cow gets is 12 pounds per day, a Holstein weighing about 1,300 pounds. 

 A young cow weighing about 700 pounds gets 5 pounds, and then we 

 feed meal according to the yield and five times as much silage as meal 

 if the cow will take it, generally about four times as much silage as 

 meal is all they will take, and about half as much hay as meal. This 

 makes a very economical ration, and I think you will find it so here. 

 You have no difficulty in growing the silage. There is only a small 

 portion of hay fed, the larger portion of the ration is corn. Shorts may 

 be substituted for barley, and bran may be substituted for oats. 



Mr. How is corn and cob meal? 



Mr. Haecker — I have not used corn and cob meal with the dairy 

 herd, so I cannot give you answer from actual results, but it is reckoned 

 to be equal to corn meal for feeding purposes ; whether it is for the dairy 

 cow, I cannot say. 



cows FRESH IN FALL. 



Mr. Mallory — Have you any record of the periods of lactation for 

 those cows you fed the first three weeks in January? 



Mr. Haecker — As a rule the cows came fresh in the fall. One of 



