WINTER FEEDS FOR DAIRY COWS. 181 



corn has been husked. Much of this is dry and hard and not 

 very palatable. The cows will make use of the leaves and 

 bits of fine stalks, but this should be fed sparingly to dairy 

 cows and should be supplemented with silage or roots and 

 clover. 



Timothy hay is a carbonaceous food. Because of its 

 value as a horse feed it usually is too high priced to feed 

 to dairy cows. It is not so well suited to milk production 

 as clover hay or alfalfa. 



Oat and barley straw are sometimes fed to dairy cows. 

 They should be fed sparingly, too, as they are not milk pro- 

 ducers. They should be introduced only for variety's sake. 



Ground oats with their hulls make one of the finest feeds 

 for the dairy cow. The hulls lighten up the feed and make 

 it a very safe feed; besides it is highly nitrogenous and 

 proves a good milk producer. 



Oat hulls from oat meal factories would be valuable 

 only to use in lightening up a heavy grain, such as corn or 

 pease. 



In the corn belt corn must of necessity form a part of 

 the dairy cow's ration. Corn on the average is a highly car- 

 bonaceous feed. Four or five pounds per day may be fed, but 

 this should be supplemented with wheat bran, and some oil 

 cake or gluten meal. Corn, if fed alone, would tend to pro- 

 duce fat and not milk. 



Barley is an excellent milk producing feed and in some 

 places is fed very largely to dairy cows. 



Where wheat bran can be purchased at a reasonable 

 price nothing better could be obtained for milk production. 

 Bran for a long time was considered of little value, but since 

 the dairymen found out its value in their business the de- 

 mand far exceeds the supply, and it is almost beyond the 

 reach of the men who gave it its popularity. It is extremely 

 rich in protein and mineral matter, and because of its light 

 character is a very valuable complement to corn. 



Brewer's grains, too, are rich in protein and are highly 

 prized as feed for dairy animals. When situated near the 

 source of supply these are obtained in a wet form. The 

 cows like them when they are obtained fresh and sweet. 



