FEEDING DAIRY CATTLE 251 



8. Clover silage, 25 pounds; hay, 5 pounds; cornstalks, ad lib.; 

 oats, 3 pounds; corn meal and linseed meal, 2 pounds each. 



9. Clover or alfalfa silage, 30 pounds; hay, ad lib.; bran, 4 

 pounds; middlings, 3 pounds; linseed meal, 1 pound. 



10. Alfalfa hay, 20 pounds ; oats, 4 pounds ; corn meal, 2 pounds. 



11. Hay, 20 pounds; cotton-seed hulls, 10 pounds; cotton-seed 

 meal, 4 pounds; wheat bran, 2 pounds. 



12. Corn silage, 40 pounds; alfalfa hay, 25 pounds; barley, 4 

 pounds ; dried beet .pulp, 3 pounds ; wheat bran, 2 pounds. 



13. Corn silage, 30 pounds ; cotton-seed hulls, 12 pounds ; bran, 

 6 pounds; cotton-seed meal, 3 pounds. 



The time of feeding is also important. The feeding should 

 be as regular as the milking. Many farmers feed- either hay or 

 grain feeds directly before or during milking, but this is not, as a 

 rule, to be recommended, both on account of the tendency it has 

 to interfere with the letting-down of the milk, and the danger of 

 contamination of the milk with dust and bacteria that it involves, 

 especially when hay is fed directly before or during the milking. 



A good order of the day's work in the dairy barn during the 

 winter is as follows : Cleaning gutters, watering, feeding hay, 

 grooming, and cleaning cows, milking, feeding grain, feeding 

 silage, turning out in the yard (on pleasant days for one or two 

 hours in the early afternoon), watering, cleaning stable, feeding 

 grain, cleaning cows, milking, feeding silage, a last feed of hay 

 if desired, and arranging bedding. 



Feeding the Dairy Bull. The bull at the head of a dairy 

 herd should receive a large share of his feed in the shape of dry 

 roughage, hay from the grasses or legumes, cornstalks, etc., with 

 only limited amounts of concentrated feeds. Of the latter, wheat 

 bran, shorts, oats, and a little corn meal are to be preferred. Roots 

 are good as a relish, while corn silage and other kinds of silage 

 should be fed very sparingly to breeding bulls. Fattening feeds 

 and excessive grain feeding should be avoided, so that the animal 

 may be kept in a vigorous, active condition. Corn and other fat- 

 tening feeds are, for this reason, to be fed with care; high feed- 

 ing and lack of exercise are common causes of impotency in bulls; 

 a wrong system of feeding and management has been the cause of 

 shortening the period of usefulness of many bulls. 



QUESTIONS 



1. Give the average composition of cow's milk. 



2. State ten factors that influence the milk secretion of cows. 



3. What is the effect of (a) excitement, (6) time of milking, (c) condition 

 of the cow, on the quality of the milk secreted? 



