1 76 GUIDE TO DAIRYING IN SOUTH AFRICA 



halfpenny worth of feed for his cows. It is folly to 

 do so, when maize forms our staple crop and beans 

 are so easily grown. With mealie fodder (green), 

 cow-pea hay, and grass for roughage, mealies, oats 

 and beans for grains, suitable rations could be given 

 the cows to suit all their requirements. Lucerne 

 hay should have been added to the above, but 

 unfortunately every farmer does not grow it. A 

 dairy farmer should first of all be a maize grower, 

 and then a lucerne grower, or if he cannot grow 

 lucerne, then he should grow cow-peas ; it is a poor 

 farm which will not grow a crop of peas or beans of 

 some description. 



Too often farmers say it does not pay to feed, 

 because they have landed themselves with a lot of 

 stock and made no provision for feed stuffs, and 

 have had big demands on their purse in conse- 

 quence. But by growing the feed and knowing the 

 amount one has in sight, one can also determine from 

 this the amount of dairy stock one can profitably 

 keep. 



All feed stuffs are divided into two heads, viz. 

 roughage or bulky foods, grain foods or concentrates. 

 These all have different values depending on the 

 amount of digestible nutrients contained in them. 



The following are some of the most common 

 foods available on the ordinary South African farm, 

 and most of the figures show the proportion of diges- 

 tible nutrient in each. 



