DAIRY CATTLE 



439 



proved equal to dried brewers' grains. 

 During the past two years, Hills, at 

 the Vermont experiment station, has 

 tested India wheat as a grain feed for 

 milch cows. This is a variety of buck- 

 wheat not much planted in the United 

 States, and seems not to be a popular 

 crop. In composition, India wheat is 

 rather irregular, but its protein content 

 is somewhat higher than whole buck- 

 wheat or buckwheat flour. Hills con- 

 siders that it is not well suited as a 

 grain feed for narrowing the ration. In- 



shows the high efficiency and economy 

 for which this grain is noted in feeding 

 for other purposes. It may be fed un- 

 husked and this is perhaps the cheapest 

 method which the farmer can adopt. Or- 

 dinarily, however, shock corn is put 

 through a feed cutter before feeding 

 to milch cows. If corn has been husked 

 or shelled for a long time it becomes 

 too hard and should then be ground. All 

 dairy cows greatly relish corn meal and 

 on this account it is sometimes fed to, 

 excess. It should preferably be mixed 



"Fig. 286 PRIZE-WINNING DUTCH BELTED BULL 



dia wheat is freely eaten in rations of 

 2 or 3 pounds a day, and produces no 

 bad effects. The meal from India wheat 

 does not keep well, apparently on ac- 

 count of its high moisture content. It 

 seems to be a good substitute for wheat 

 bran, cottonseed meal or linseed meal, 

 pound for pound, when fed in rations of 

 less than 3 pounds a day. In the ex- 

 periments carried on by Hills, India 

 wheat appeared to have more effective- 

 ness in milk production than would be 

 expected from its chemical composition. 

 Corn — I n the production of milk, corn 



with bran, shorts, linseed meal or cot- 

 tonseed meal for dairy cows. 



In recent experiments by Otis, it ap- 

 peared that when corn is worth 10 cents 

 a 100 pounds for milk production, 

 barley is worth 11 cents, broom corn 

 seed 9 cents, cowpeas 23 cents, lin- 

 seed meal 37 cents and cottonseed meal 

 47 cents.' 



It has already been stated that_ corn 

 should not be fed as the only grain to 

 milch cows. In Maryland, Patterson 

 found that the profits were in favor of 

 feeding a balanced ration of mixed 



