DAIRYING 51 



Of concentrates it has been found a good working rule to feed as 

 many pounds of grain feeds per day to each cow as she produces 

 pounds of butter fat a week, or one-fourth to one-third as much 

 grain as she gives pounds of milk daily, the amount depending 

 upon the per cent of butter fat in the milk. In the case of cows 

 producing milk with a low per cent of fat, one-fourth would be 

 required. Care should always be taken to avoid an increase in 

 body weight above the normal for each cow, since the milk secre- 

 tion, as a general rule, is likely to suffer when cows commence to 

 utilize their feed for the formation of body fat." 



741. Palatability and digestibility. It has been stated that 

 a chemical analysis of ground leather will show a percentage of 

 protein and carbohydrates similar to those of a concentrated cat- 

 tle feed, but the ground leather is worthless for feeding stock of 

 any kind. This striking example only illustrates another very 

 important point in feeding dairy cows, which is that all the feeds 

 they receive must be fit to eat and wholesome ; musty, moldy grain 

 or hay, and decayed silage will not give good returns as milk pro- 

 ducers, even though the figures in the table may show them to con- 

 tain percentages of digestible protein. 



742. The important points in feeding dairy cows profitably 

 are first, a cow that w r ill respond w r ith milk when given a liberal 

 ration : second, sound, palatable feed, both coarse feed and grain 

 mixture, and third, give all the coarse feed of some sort the cows 

 will eat, but regulate the amount of grain mixture by the pounds 

 of milk produced daily. 



BEST SEASON OF THE YEAR FOR FRESH COWS. 



743. This question should be considered from the standpoint 

 of the cow, the cost of the feed, and the sale of the products. The 

 advantages to be obtained from fall calving cows have been dis- 

 cussed in Lesson I, under the subject of Winter Dairying. The 

 arguments there given are all favorable to the production of the 

 maximum amount of milk during the winter, but a large per- 

 centage of the cows throughout the country are fresh in the spring 



'Woll and Humphrey in Wis. Expt. Sta. Bui. 200. 



