440 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



hay and 12 to 20 Ibs. of silage will be eaten daily, depending on the age 

 and size of the animal. Heifers over 10 months of age, especially of the 

 larger breeds, may make satisfactory gains on silage and legume hay alone 

 if of excellent quality. Usually to keep them growing well, a limited 

 amount of concentrates is added. 



2. When legume hay is not available but corn silage is on hand, silage 

 may form the chief roughage. Heifers may make good gains on silage 

 and concentrates with no dry roughage, but often they show a great 

 desire for some dry forage. Hence it is best to feed also some hay, or 

 corn or sorghum fodder or stover. In addition, 2 to 3 Ibs. of concentrates 

 should be fed daily, at least one-half of which should be a high protein 

 feed like linseed meal, cottonseed meal, or gluten feed. The rest may be 

 corn, or else barley, oats, or bran, if these feeds are cheaper per pound 

 than corn. Even bright oat straw may form part of the roughage, along 

 with good corn silage. At the "Wisconsin Station heifers fed 7 Ibs. oat 

 straw and 26 Ibs. corn silage a head daily, with 3 Ibs. of a concentrate 

 mixture of 2 parts cottonseed meal, 3 parts gluten feed, and 1 part wheat 

 bran, made practically as large gains as others fed alfalfa hay, corn 

 silage, and 2.5 Ibs. of a concentrate mixture consisting chiefly of corn. 

 The heifers actually ate but 4.5 Ibs. straw a day, being allowed to pick it 

 over and eat the finer parts. The rest was used for bedding. To get 

 heifers to eat unpalatable roughage, diluted molasses may be poured over 

 it. Thus fed on cut corn stover at the Wisconsin Station, molasses was 

 worth as much or more per pound than ground corn. 



3. When plenty of legume hay is available, but no silage, a satisfactory 

 ration is legume hay at will (about 12 to 16 Ibs. per head daily) with 

 2 Ibs. or more of corn or other grain daily. On legume hay without grain 

 dairy heifers will do fairly well but will not make normal growth. 



4. When corn or sorghum fodder or stover and hay from the grasses 

 are the only roughages on hand, it is generally best to purchase enough 

 legume hay to form one-half to one-third the roughage, as without 

 either legume hay or corn silage considerably more concentrates must be 

 fed for even fair results. If only protein-poor roughages are fed, the 

 concentrates should consist chiefly of feeds high in protein. 



The effect of liberal versus scant feeding on the development of dairy 

 heifers has been studied in several trials by Eckles at the Missouri 

 Station. 50 Heifer calves fed skim milk (up to 6 months of age), hay and 

 pasture or soiling crops, with no concentrates whatsoever until they 

 calved, made gains considerably under normal both in live weight and in 

 frame. Other heifers fed very liberal rations from birth grew rapidly, 

 and matured at an early age. Growth continued longer with the animals 

 fed the scanty ration, but they never reached full size. One cause of 

 small cows in commercial herds is insufficient feed while they are growing. 



Many breeders believe that if a heifer is allowed to become fat she 

 will develop a tendency to use much of her feed for the formation of body 



Mo. Res. Bui. 31; Bui. 135. 



