A PASTURE HANDBOOK 71 



plement is needed because the grass is so rich in protein. As the 

 grass becomes mature it usually pays to add some protein meal in the 

 ratio of 1 part to about 10 parts of corn for 2-year-olds. A somewhat 

 narrower ratio, such as 1 to 8, should be used for yearlings and a wider 

 one for 3-year-olds. 



As pasturage is usually more palatable than dry roughage, it is 

 difficult to get cattle to eat enough grain on pasture to fatten as rapidly 

 as they do in dry lot. This is particularly true of mature steers that 

 are to be given a short feed. Such cattle may be fattened more quickly 

 and on less graiu per 100 pounds gain in dry lot during the summer, 

 than on pasture, but there are advantages such as savings in labor and 

 roughages which may make the feeding on pasture more profitable. 

 Such advantages and disadvantages must be considered for each case, 

 as no specific recommendations will be applicable in all cases. In the 

 case of immature animals the ability to grow as well as fatten is pro- 

 moted by the minerals and vitamins present in fresh green feed. 

 Hence, calves and yearlings generally make greater and more economi- 

 cal gains on pasture than they do in dry lot. However, such cattle 

 frequently lack the finish possessed by similar cattle fattened exclu- 

 sively in dry lot. 



PASTURES FOR DAIRY CATTLE 



REQUIREMENTS OF THE DAIRY COW 



Liberal feeding is one of the fundamentals of successful dairying. 

 Although beef cattle are often carried through periods of feed shortage 

 on only low-grade roughage or poor pasture, such a practice is not 

 desirable for dairy cows. A milking cow insufficiently fed declines 

 rapidly in milk production and in body weight. Even a dry cow must 

 have sufficient feed to maintain her weight, otherwise her production 

 of milk after calving may be unsatisfactory. 



Dairy cows do best on immature pasturage. When they graze on 

 grasses with the seed heads developed, milk production declines. 

 Observations at Beltsville, covering tliree seasons, show that the de- 

 cline in milk production is greater in June, when the bluegrass is 

 forming seed, than in any other month of the year in spite of the fact 

 that the pasturage in June is fairly abundant. The aim should be to 

 provide the dairy herd with young grass tliroughout the season. 



A dairy cow weighing 1,200 pounds must consume about 25 pounds 

 of dry matter a day, containing about 17 pounds of total digestible 

 nutrients, to support her body weight and to produce 1 pound of 

 butterfat. She should consume about half this quantity if she is dry. 

 The dry matter of pasture plants varies from less than 20 percent when 

 the plants are young and growing to more than 40 percent in times of 

 drought or when the plants are nearing maturity. If the average 

 content of dry matter is 25 percent a cow producing 1 pound of butter- 

 fat a day will need 100 pounds of grass a day. The grass must be 

 abundant, otherwise it is physically impossible for a cow to gather as 

 much as 100 pounds a day. Furthermore, remasticating this quan- 

 tity of grass requires 7 or 8 hours of the cow's time, and she cannot 

 graze and ruminate at the same time . 



QUANTITY OF GRASS A COW WILL EAT 



An investigation conducted at the BeltsviUe Research Center at 

 Beltsville, Md., showed that when the pasture plants were young, 



