CHAPTER V. 



FEEDING DAIRY CATTLE. 



One of the most important things for a dairyman to remember 

 is, that the returns he gets from his cattle are greatly dependent on 

 the food provided for them and the treatment they are subjected to. 

 If cows are neglected in the winter time and kept in cold, bleak 

 paddocks, without shelter, they will not yield anything like the 

 returns they would if properly cared for. In fact, they would thrive 

 much better if they had less food and more warmth. It is very poor 

 policy to starve or neglect a cow in winter, thinking she can make 

 it up in the spring, for in the first place the co\v has to make up ilesh 

 again before she can be expected to come to her full milk, and that 

 is a tedious and wasteful process. It is much easier to keep a cow 

 in good condition than to get one into it. Again, if the cow is dry 

 she will probably be in calf, so that a great deal of extra nourish- 

 ment is required ; or it may be that she is in calf and milking also, 

 and in that case the strain upon her system is very great, and unless 

 properly looked after, the cow, the calf and the milk returns will 

 suffer. It will pay much better to keep fewer cows, and see that 

 they are properly attended to and have plenty to eat, than to keep 

 more that are continually on short rations. There is one mistake 

 that many dairy farmers make, and that is, they think that the 

 quality of the milk can be greatly improved by feeding very rich 

 foods. As a matter of fact experiment has shown that the food has 

 very little effect on the quantity of butter fat in the milk. A cow, by 

 good and judicious feeding, may be made to increase the quantity 

 of her milk up to 50 per cent, or over, but if the milk is tested the 

 percentage of butter fat will be found to have changed but little. 

 Some years since the writer made the experiment as follows : 

 Three good milking cows about two months calved were taken, 

 each averaging 12 quarts of milk a day on ordinary grass feed. 

 They were put into a small paddock and in the mornings given a 

 large bucket of bran that had been steamed, with about four pounds 

 of treacle added to it. They then had as much chaffed green maize 

 as they would eat ; at noon they had a bran and treacle mas i 

 again, ^and chaffed oaten hay mixed with chaff d mai/e ; at night 

 they had a mash of maize meal and treacle and chaffed oaten hay 

 and maize. One cow steadily increased in quantity for nine days, 

 and from twelve quarts per day went up to 19^. The amount of 

 butter fat in her milk, as shown by a Babcock milk tester before she 

 was put on extra rations, was 3*8 per cent. ; at the end of two 

 weeks the milk went only one per cent, higher, giving 3^9 per cent. 



