SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART X. 625 



COVERED YARDS FOR COWS. 

 From the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin No. 2-i4. 



In a recent circular of the Illinois station, W. J. Eraser presents the 

 views of a number of practical dairymen who have been in the habit of 

 allowing their cows the freedom of a closed shed or covered barnyard 

 and using the stable only at milking time. .The data collected seemed 

 BO favorable and the plan so reasonable that the method was put into 

 actual operation at the University of Illinois. Twenty-two cows were 

 cared for in this way in a shed 30 by 68 feet, having mangers on each 

 side and bull pens in two corner's, and the results were considered most 

 satisfactory. 



From the experience at the university the past two years it has been 

 found that the cows keep much cleaner than when stabled and that 

 the milking stable is in a more sanitary condition; consequently it is 

 easier to produce clean milk. By this method there is less difficulty 

 in providing cows with an abundance of fresh air, and they are more 

 vigorous and healthy and have better appetites than when kept in the 

 stable. Since they can move about and get exercise, they will not suffer 

 in cold weather if the temperature is somewhat lower than in the or- 

 dinary stable. Labor is saved, as the shed can be bedded much more 

 easily and quickly than can stalls; there is little stable cleaning to be 

 done, and the manure is hauled directly from the shed to the field at 

 any time most convenient and when least damage is done the land by 

 tramping. Another advantage is the saving of fertility much more com- 

 pletely. Many barns do not have cement floors, and so there is more or 

 less waste to the liquid portion of the manure. Since land is becoming 

 so high-priced no farmer can afford to allow any fertility to be wasted, 

 and by this method all the liquid is saved, as it is absorbed by the bed- 

 ding. If only enough bedding is used to keep the cows clean they 

 tramp the manure so thoroughly that it does not heat to make the air 

 Impure. If manure is hauled directly from the stable to the field there 

 is a considerable portion of the year when it must be allowed to accumu- 

 late in the yard, where it will leach badly, or it must be hauled onto 

 the land when it is so wet and soft that much injury is done by tramp- 

 ing; this is especially true on clay soil. 



On many dairy farms the question of getting sufficient help is be- 

 coming such a problem as to interfere seriously with this branch of 

 agriculture. As it seems to be the opinion of the majority of people 

 who have practiced this method that it saves labor, this is one of the 

 strong points in its favor. 



The information at hand is not sufficient from which to draw definite 

 conclusions for all sections of the country and all conditions. The sys- 

 tem has been a marked success wherever we can find that it has been 

 tried, and it seems probable that it could be put into practice by many 

 dairymen of the state, greatly to their advantage and to the general im- 

 provement of the milk supply. 

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