THE FEEDING OF DAIRY COWS. 5 



LAY OF LAND AND KOUGHNESS OF STJKFACE. 



In mountainous or hilly sections of the country there is often a 

 part of the farm which, on account of steepness, tendency to wash, 

 or the presence of rock formation near the surface, can not or should 

 not be plowed frequently. On such farms it is often best to plow 

 only the bottoms, keeping the uplands in permanent pastures. The 

 dairyman will find ready application of the pasture system for sum- 

 mer feeding on such farms. 



PASTURE WITH SUPPLEMENTS. 



GRAIN. 



As has been said, the supplementing of pastures with grain is some- 

 times advisable, even when the pastures are of the best. In many 

 sections, however, pastures are never of the best kind, and in no sec- 

 tions are they always in the best condition. It is evident, therefore, 

 that the commercial dairyman will seldom depend upon pasture alone. 

 Grain should be fed to heavy-producing cows under all pasture con- 

 ditions. 



Prof. C. H. Eckles, of the University of Missouri, suggests the 

 following-named quantities of grain with abundant pasture for vary- 

 ing production : 



Jersey cow producing 



20 pounds of milk daily 3 pounds of grain. 



25 pounds of milk daily 4 pounds of grain. 



30 pounds of milk daily 6 pounds of grain. 



35 pounds of milk daily 8 pounds of grain. 



40 pounds of milk daily 10 pounds of grain. 



Holstein-Priesian or Ayrshire cow producing 



25 pounds of milk daily 3 pounds of grain. 



30 pounds of milk daily 5 pounds of grain. 



S5 pounds of milk daily 7 pounds of grain. 



40 pounds of milk daily 9 pounds of grain. 



50 pounds of milk daily 10 pounds of grain. 



While this is, of course, an arbitrary rule and variations should be 

 made to suit different conditions and individual cows, it is in accord 

 with good feeding practice and probably is as good a rule of its kind 

 as has been formulated. 



For cows of medium production it is usually more economical to 

 feed silage or some green crop rather than grain for supplementing 

 short pasturage. In supplementing pasture with grain it should 

 be remembered that the percentage of protein in the grain ration 

 need not be the same as for winter feeding. Good pasture is an 

 approximately balanced ration. The grain ration to be fed with 

 pasture grass should, therefore, have approximately the same pro- 

 portion of protein to other nutrients. In the case of extra-heavy pro- 



