10 



FARMERS' MONTHLY OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



Continued fronn page 9, colunnn 2 



tion, to have a supply of salt placed 

 where the cows may have ready access to 

 it. 



Summary 



In the light of the present knowledge 

 of the mineral requirements of the dairy 

 cow the following facts deserve considera- 

 tion : 



Timothy hay has no place in the dairy 

 ration; it would be better business to sell 

 the timothy hay and buy a legume hay. 



Alfalfa or clover hay is necessary foi 

 supplying not only lime but also the "un- 

 known factor" which aids the a^imal in 

 utilizing the lime. Soybean hay and 

 sweet clover hay compare favorably with 

 alfalfa and clover hays. 



Green grasses or legume hays care- 1 

 fully cured supply more of the "unknown | 

 factor" which assists in lime utilization 

 than hay that have been unduly exposed 

 to the bleaching effects of the sun. The 

 practice of curing alfalfa hay under caps 

 has beeen recommended for this reason. 



Direct sunshine, such as an animal 

 receives while out of doors, aids the ani-' 

 mal in utilizing the lime of the ration. 



The mineral content of feeds grown on | 

 the farm can be increased to a marked 

 extent by liming and fertilizing. In 

 fact, this is a good place to add the min- 

 eral supplements to the ration. 



Leguminous plants in the pasture are 

 to be recommended. The practice of pas- 

 turing sweet clover fields is a good one. 



Phosphorous is best supplied by one of 

 the high protein concentrates such as 

 bran, cottonseed meal, oil meal, and soy- 

 bean meal. 



Feeding a dry cow on leguminous 

 roughages alone results in a low phos- 

 phorus intake. The addition of some 

 bran during this period will be well re- 

 paid in the succeeding lactation. 



Cows should have access to common 

 salt every day. 



The addition of a mineral supplement 

 will do no harm and may be very bene- 

 ficial, especially with high producing 

 cows and in cases where deficient rations 

 are fed. 



Steamed bone meal and bone flour sup- 

 ply the necessary minerals in approxi- 

 mately the right proportions. 



Other mineral supplements that may 

 be fed to -supply both lime and phors- 

 phorus are wood ashes, floats, acid phos- 

 phate, and charcoal. Those supplying 

 lime only are finely ground limestone and 

 lime hydrate (always to be fed on silage). 

 The minerals may be fed mixed with 

 the grain ration or with the salt to 

 which the cows have ready access. 



C. F. Moyiroe Ohio Experiment Station 

 Monthly Bulletin, March-April 1925. 



IterkMliire County A'JNited 



Continued from page 1. column 1 



last year. It was cut June 16 and the 

 .second crop was two feet high. Mr. Bart- 

 lett has his barn full of hay so is going 

 to pasture seven cows on this field the 

 rest of the year. This caused considera- 

 ble comment from those present as they 

 apparently have room in their barns for 

 more hay. Mr. Bartlett's method of cur- 

 ing alfalfa is to cut the crop after the 

 dew is ofl". In the afternoon of the next 

 day the alfalfa is raked and put in cocks. 

 The cocks are not opened and the alfalfa 

 is ready to go into the barn in from three 

 to four days. In another field a demon- 

 stration was conducted in which part of 

 the alfalfa was inoculated and part was 

 not. The inoculated portion of the field 

 had a fine stand while the uninoculated 

 portion was very poor. 



A little after noon the party arrived at 

 Highfield Farm. Mr. Ellis had provided 

 chairs, ice cold Holstein milk and ice 

 cream. The lawn was an ideal spot for 

 the basket lunch to which all did justice. 

 After lunch, Mr. Ellis stated that he 

 started in 1918 with a herd composed of 

 both grade and registered Holsteins. 

 There were seven registered cows in 

 the original herd. The present herd of 

 registered cattle is descended from three 

 of these. Only two registered bulls have 

 been used. The first increased the pro- 

 duction of his daughters three to eight 

 per cent over their dams. The dams aver- 

 age about 16,000 pounds of milk and 608 

 pounds of fat, while the daughters pro- 

 duced an average of 18,000 pounds of 

 milk and 651 pounds of fat. This bull 

 stands eighth in the leading herd sires of 

 the Holstein breed. He had eighteen 

 daughters with advanced registry records. 

 One of these daughters at one time held 

 the world's record as a three year old for 

 milk and for butter fat production. 



The present herd sire, King Segis Pon- 



tiac Konegen, besides being a typy in- 

 dividual, has increased the production of 

 his daughters from ten to fifteen per cent 

 over the records of their dams. He has 

 three daughters that averaged 21,666 

 pounds of milk and 756 pounds of fat in a 

 year. The future herd sire, a calf six 

 months old, was purchased from Carna- 

 tion Stock Farms. 



Since 1918, the herd average has in- 

 creased from 6,515 pounds of milk to 

 11,976 pounds in 1924. In the first years 

 of keeping records, Mr. Ellis found that 

 his cows could stand more feed so he kept 

 increasing the grain till he fed an aver- 

 age of 4,792 pounds to each cow. While 

 he has fed as high as one pound of grain 

 to 2.5 pounds of milk, he found that his 

 herd produced the most economically 

 when he fed an average of one pound of 

 grain to 4.34 pounds of milk. With high 

 gr-ain feeding, he found that his cows did 

 not eat as much roughage as on the 1-4.34 

 ratio of grain feeding. While some of the 

 cows on test are milked three times a 

 day, ninety per cent of the cows are only 

 milked twice daily. 



Mr. Ellis stated that while he believed 

 in the tuberculin test, he was not in en- 

 tire sympathy with the methods of some 

 of the testers. He said that he has had 

 a few reactors where the source of the 

 infection was not satisfactorily explained. 

 He thought bone meal might be a source 

 of infection so has stopped feeding it. 

 This has caused the calves to be lighter 

 boned at birth which has advantages as 

 well as disadvantages. Another source 

 of error in tests, he believes, is due to 

 carelessness of administering the tubercu- 

 lin. The herd is under Federal super- 

 vision. 



On visiting the barns, the visitors were 



I asked to pick out the cow that had made 



the world's records. Some did it, others 



said they did. No official records were 



kept of the contest. The cows were all 



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I 



THE ORCHARD AND GARDEN SUPPLY CO. 



Telephone 2073, 69 King St., Northampton, Mass. 



