42 DAIRY FARMING 



on account of her large store room, the paunch, is ca- 

 pable of storing up a large quantity of feed and, therefore, 

 does not require as many feeds as some other farm 

 animals. 



Order of Feeding Concentrates and Roughage. As 

 a rule it is best to feed the concentrates just previous to 

 milking and the roughage immediately thereafter. The 

 grain helps to attract the cows to their stalls, and, by feed- 

 ing the roughage after milking, we avoid tainting the milk 

 with undesirable odors when the roughage contains these. 

 When corn silage, for example, is fed immediately before 

 milking, its odor is always perceptible in the milk. When 

 fed after milking, the odor is never detected. It is 

 believed also that feeding the concentrates by themselves 

 will result in a more thorough mixing of saliva with 

 them and thus increase their digestibility. Furthermore, 

 a great deal of dust can be avoided by feeding the rough- 

 age after milking, particularly when the roughage con- 

 sists of hay or dry fodder. 



A prevailing opinion that heavy concentrates will form 

 an injurious, pasty mass in the cow's stomach does not 

 seem to be well founded. When the concentrates are fed 

 directly before milking and the roughage directly after, 

 there will be sufficient mixing in the paunch before the 

 contents pass into the stomach proper. The author for 

 several years, has successfully followed the practice of 

 feeding concentrates and roughage separately when the 

 former consisted of as much as five pounds of cotton- 

 seed meal per day. 



Feeding Before and After Calving. Toward the 

 close of the lactation period, the grain ration should be 

 gradually reduced, either because of the reduced flow of 

 milk, or on account of the desirability of drying up the 



