258 DAIRY CATTLE AND MILK PRODUCTION 



a full flow of milk. This season is often the critical time 

 of the year for the dairy cow. It is probable that as much 

 loss occurs one year with another by lack of feed at this 

 time as occurs from improper feeding during the winter 

 season. When the season of dry feeding arrives, the farmer 

 expects to feed his stock, and is prepared for it. On the other 

 hand, as long as the cattle are on pasture and the field work 

 is pressing, the tendency is to let the cows get along the best 

 way they can. 



On a large proportion of the farms, the cows are fresh in 

 the spring, give a good flow of milk while the pastures are 

 good, but when hot weather and short pastures come, the 

 flow drops one half or two thirds, and the cows are producing 

 but a small amount in the winter when the price is the highest. 

 It is almost impossible to restore the flow of milk to the orig- 

 inal amount after it is once allowed to run down from lack of 

 feed. To make large returns from the cow a large yearly pro- 

 duction must be had ; and to do this, the flow of milk must be 

 kept up ten or eleven months in the year. 



It is possible to hold up the milk flow by heavy grain feed- 

 ing, but this is unnecessarily expensive. Provision should 

 always be made to have green crops on hand that may be cut 

 and fed when needed, or to have silage available. It is the 

 nature of blue grass to grow freely in early summer, then to 

 rest until fall. This leaves a period in the summer where blue 

 grass is depended upon for pasture from about the middle of 

 July to the middle of September, when the pasture is apt to be 

 short. 



Corn is in many ways the best crop for summer soiling. 

 The main difficulty is, it does not come on early enough. 

 Even the early varieties are hardly mature enough to feed 



