FEEDING DAIRY CATTLE 243 



will come in between 2 and 2 y^ years of age. As the time of parturi- 

 tion approaches, the feeding of the heifer should be plain, without 

 stimulating feeds that may have a deleterious influence on the foetus 

 and cause abortion, as fermented or decayed feeds. 



Good, clean hay from clover or mixed grasses, corn fodder, corn 

 silage (made from well-matured corn and fed in moderate quanti- 

 ties, not to exceed 20 pounds a day), or roots should form the main 

 reliance; preferably both dry and succulent roughage is fed, and, 

 in addition, small amounts of ground oats, bran, shorts, gluten 

 feed or corn, the last feed being given only when the heifer is in 

 poor flesh. Shortly before calving, the feeding of all grain feeds, 

 except, perhaps, about two pounds of bran, is discontinued. Directly 

 after calving, lukewarm water only, or a warm, thin slop of oatmeal, 

 bran, or shorts, is given for a few days until the danger of milk 

 fever is over ; the amount of feed given should be very light, and 

 then gradually increased for two to three weeks, when the cow may 

 be put on full feed. By this time, or before, the maximum produc- 

 tion of butter fat, and generally also of milk, will be reached. 



A heifer with her first calf should receive special care and be 

 fed liberally, since she is growing and producing milk at the same 

 time. A good supply of protein feeds must be furnished in her 

 ration to meet the requirements of the body for nitrogenous com- 

 ponents. Corn meal is especially valuable at this time for heifers 

 that show a tendency to " milk their flesh off." The heavy feeding 

 should be continued up to drying-off prior to the second calving. 

 A persistent milking habit is favored by continuing to milk the 

 heifer for about ten months during the first lactation period, if 

 possible. 



Summer Feeding of Dairy Cows. The favorable influence of 

 early summer pasturage on the milk secretion of cows, both as re- 

 gards yield and quality, and, more especially, its fat content, has 

 been known to observing dairy farmers so long as milk records 

 have been kept or tests of milk have been made. Ample pasturage 

 is one of the essentials of successful dairy farming, where the soil- 

 ing system or feeding of summer silage is not practised. During 

 the early part of the season the cows will, as a rule, find a sufficient 

 supply of feed on pasture alone, but later it will often be necessary 

 to supplement the pasture with soiling crops or summer silage, 

 or, if neither is available, to feed grain feeds. The feeding of grain 

 to cows on pasture is, in general, only profitable when there is a 

 scarcity of pasturage (p. 94). In the case of heavy milkers it will, 

 however, be advantageous to feed at least a few pounds of wheat 



