10 Jan., 1916.] The Dairy Cow as a Machine. 35 



111 one case tlie food is used to promote an excessive development 

 of flesh and fat tissue and in the other for conversion into milk. 



If we were assured of a continuous growth of pasture grass 

 throughout the year, in most cases hand-feeding would be a matter 

 for small consideration ; but, owing to seasonal influences, a plenteous 

 supply is followed by periods of scarcity, and in so much as dairying 

 is only profitable when a long milking season is secured, the grass 

 needs to be supplemented by grown or purchased feeds. 



The demand for additional feed usually comes in the early summer, 

 to meet which maize and millet are usually grown, and complaint is 

 made that these do not effectively check the decrease in the milk yield. 

 Millet has a higher feeding value than maize ; it also possesses the 

 advantage of being easily grazed, whereby labour is saved, and, in 

 addition, is available for use at an earlier period than maize. Maize 

 yields a greater amount of fodder per acre, and any surplus can readily 

 be made into silage. Where suitable conditions obtain both crops 

 should be grown, but alone these do not meet the demands of a good 

 milking herd at this particular period. 



Usually when these fodders are fed the grass has shed most of its 

 seed, and what remains in the paddock is a hard tough straw difficult 

 to digest. The most valuable contents of the growing grasses have 

 concentrated in the seed, which on ripening falls to the ground. Maize 

 and millet do not contain, in the necessary amount and proportion, that 

 nourishment of which the dried grass is deficient. For this reason each 

 season the milk yield decreases more rapidly at this particular period 

 than if sufficient suitable pasture or balanced feeds were available. To 

 check this rapid decrease and to balance the maize and millet, some 

 clover or lucerne, either green or as hay, should be given. To expect 

 a cow to milk heavily when fed on a little dried grass supplemented 

 by maize is as reasonable as asking oneself to perform hard and 

 continued manual labour on a little dry bread supplemented by boiled 

 cabbage. The reason in both cases is the same. The food does not 

 contain the requisite constituents nor sufficient energy to do the work; 

 and those constituents which the food contains are not present in that 

 proportion Avhich ])rodnees the best return. Should home-grown lueerno 

 or clover not be available, in most seasons it pays to give a small 

 amount of bran and pollard or gluten meal; say 2 lbs. bran and 1 lb. 

 pollard, or 3 lbs. gluten meal daily in addition to the green fodder. 

 Wiiere maize is fed in the i)addock, these may be given dry or mixed 

 with a very sm.-ill ;mi()unt of chaff in the bails or in boxes. The above 

 amounts must not be blindly used. The value of every ration deiiends 

 upon the intelligence of the feeder. The amounts fed are dctenninod 

 by the price of butter fat, jirice of feed, and the amount of milk yielded 

 by each cow. In many instances it is |)rofitabl(' to give a ninch greater 

 amount, and in others a lesser amount will sullice. The object should be 

 to maintain the milk flow, due allowance being made for the decrease 

 resulting from the extending lactation period. If. as a result of the 

 grass drying in the summer, the average decrease over one mouth bo 

 S lbs. per cow, of 4.;") per cent, milk, when butter fat is selling at l.s. 

 per lb., the loss per cow will be 4d. per day. In other words, if, on 

 1st Januai'v the cows averaged 20 lbs. milk, and on 1st Febniary 

 a\er;ige{l IS ll)s. per cow, ciich cow would be yielding ;', lb. of 



