268 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



demand the versatility of skill required in the better types of dairying. Feed 

 it to steers and make money? Yes, I have no objection to this proposition 

 and if the young man has not habits of patience, perseverance, attention 

 into detail and courage, he would better stick to steers rather than the dairy 

 cow. There is much room left for intelligent^teer feeding in this and every 

 other State. 



Did you ever think of the contrast between the steer and the dairy cow 

 both in the quantity and the quality of their performance? If not, here are 

 some figures that will interest you: A certain cow at the Michigan Agricul- 

 tural College threw down in her milk an average of eighty-five pounds of dry 

 matter, total solids per week, 12.21 pounds per day. Of course she was a 

 large cow and an extraordinary milker, giving about a hundred pounds of 

 milk per day. A year later when drying off she gave us over four pounds 

 per day of solids. Now it is a mighty good steer that will gain three pounds 

 per day in gross weight and some share of this gain is made up of water. It 

 would take therefore a good half dozen prime steers to eat, digest and as- 

 similate as much as did the one dairy cow. 



An examination of composition of the gain and of the milk solids would 

 show that the cow gave in her milk, ten times as much protein as the steer 

 would store up in his gain. The cow is therefore the banner animal on the 

 farm as far as ability to give a good account of a large amount of feed is 

 concerned. Cows vary in their abilities in this respect and the wise dairy- 

 man selects his heard carefully with the Babcock test and the scales, ruth- 

 lessly destroying all cows which do not give large and paying yields of rich 

 milk. Michigan dairymen are doing this more and more. Each mess of 

 milk is weighed in many herds and the owners find that it pays to go even 

 to this extreme, pays in the increased interest taken by the milkers and the 

 consequent larger and more persistent yields, pays in the knowledge gained 

 of the individual cows and in the indications given of approaching troubles 

 avoided by the prompt application of needed remedies. 



With carefully selected cows, the dairymen will see to it that while corn 

 is the basis of his ration he will have other, more nitrogenous feeds to supply 

 the demands for the casein of the milk. He will try to grow these protein 

 feeds. He will grow alfalfa if he can. He will see to it that the roots are 

 properly covered with tubercles and that therefore the chief supply of nitro- 

 gen to the crop is the free air overhead and not the limited nitrates beneath 

 his feet. In Michigan, alfalfa is still in the experimental stage and the end 

 is not yet. In Iowa it should succeed better and become a permanent mem- 

 ber of the lists of forage plants. It fits perfectly into the corn and corn 

 fodder, making a complete ration for the dairy cow. Have the seed or the 

 soil properly inoculated with the germs needed to make the nodules. Write 

 to your experiment station in this matter. 



Try also soy beans for grain and hay but do not use them in the silo. I 

 do not know why they do not make good silage but so far the forage seems 

 to give a taint to the milk and to be otherwise objectionable in the silo. Use 

 it therefor as hay or as grain to add protein to the corn ration. Here, again, 

 there is call for inoculation. One acre of soys at the college yielded but 

 sixty-seven pounds of nitrogen when roots were not inoculated while the 

 adjacent acre with inoculated roots gave one hundred and fifty-two pounds. 

 Note the very important difference. 



