7*' 



first-class food for milking rows in winter is ensilage made of good 

 sweet oaten straw and rape. The rape and oaten straw are put in 



the silo layer about, and the dry straw absorbs a great deal of the 



juice from the succulent rape, so that when it comes to be taken out 

 the whole mass is of a screen colour. One winter I fed about 100 

 cows on this mixture, all the winter through, and never had better 

 results. The silage was taken fresh out of the pit in the morning 

 and fed direct to the cows. Coming out fresh it was warm and the 

 cattle not only milked well, but kept their condition remarkably 

 well. They had the same ration at night also, each cow getting on 

 an average about 30 pounds of silage a day. They also had the run 

 of grass paddocks with fair grass in them. Another good useful 

 winter fodder I found to be oaten chaff and green barley, the latter 

 also chaffed, mixed up together about 24 hours before use and put 

 in a heap and allowed to heat and then fed warm to the cattle. 



Ciood results were also obtained from maize stalks that had 

 been gathered and carefully stacked and protected from damp after 

 the cobs had been taken off. These were cut up in the chaffcutter 

 and mixed with green cape barley or green oats, and allowed to 

 heat, also fed warm to the cows. On each of these mixtures the 

 cattle milked well and kept their condition all through the winter. 

 For summer feed, ensilage was found to be excellent, especially the 

 sour ensilage, although the cows did very well on the sweet 

 ensilage, but not so well as on the former. The best crops for 

 dairy cattle, to be fed in the form of silage, are maize (chaffed), 

 sorghum (chaffed), peas and oats, or peas and barley, oats, wheat 

 and cape barley. 



For direct green feeding all the foregoing were found excellent, 

 also lucerne, (where only milk is required for use, but not if it is to 

 be made into butter or cheese, as both these are tainted by it), 

 mangolds, and on a piece of river flat one can scarcely get a better 

 return from any crop than from the long red variety, and no crop will 

 more amply repay care and trouble than mangolds. Manure heavily, 

 do not leave them too close, cultivate often and deep, and keep 

 all weeds down. Thirty to forty tons per acre is no unusual crop 

 if well looked after, and for summer feed when the grass is dry it can 

 scarcely be surpassed. They may also be used in winter if chaff or 

 bran is mixed with the n. 



Pumpkins, and the still more humble pig-melon, chopped, and 

 fed into chaff and bran, are not to be despised. The latter can be 

 grown anywhere perfectly on newly broken land without any care 

 or attention, and yield an enormous return and come in at a time 

 of the year when succulent feed is most scarce. 



Potatoes are also good feed, and they have the property of 

 making the butter very firm. Turnips are not good for dairy cattle, 

 as they taint milk, butter and cheese, and the taint is so unpleasant 

 that few people care even to use the milk. Ensilage has also 

 been charged with tainting milk, but if it does, it is not when it 



