FEED DURING HEAVY YIELD 241 



the young, and to " milk down " after calving. This fact now 

 is made use of in the making of large milk records. 



The question naturally arises, " What should be the nature 

 of the ration fed during this period of losing weight ? Should 

 it be a balanced ration to the limit of the cow's ability to eat 

 feed, and thereby force her to extract from her tissue a balanced 

 ration for the remainder of the milk, or should the ration 

 contain practically enough protein to sustain the full flow and 

 thereby permit the cow's vital tissue to remain unimpaired while 

 forcing her to use up her body fat only to provide the 

 deficiency ? " 



The question has never been closely studied experimentally, 

 but the practice of the men who are now making the large 

 records have very generally adopted the latter method. 



An abundance of protein in an easily digested and palatable 

 form stimulates milk production and, what is probably of equal 

 importance, leaves the vital organs and tissues of the cow in 

 good repair after the yield has declined to a point where the cow 

 can sustain the flow by daily consumption of feed. 



An example to illustrate : Let us assume a 1400-pound Hol- 

 stein-Friesian cow in good condition. The matter may be illus- 

 trated by figure 76. Let indicate time of calving; the 

 vertical line amount in pounds and the horizontal line time in 

 weeks ; the solid curved line the milk amount and the dotted line 

 the feed amount. 



A week or more before the cow is due to calve the heavy 

 grain should be vnthheld from the cow, she being fed on suc- 

 culent roughage such as silage and roots with a little hay and 

 just prior to parturition all feed should be withheld, but water 

 provided in abundance and often. 



After calving she should not be crowded with feed to force 

 the milk, but rather the cow should be allowed to set the pace in 

 flow while the feed is carefully raised in amount, follovidng, as 

 it were, the lead of the milk. 



If in our example (Fig. 76) the cow at the end of three weeks 



reached a flow of 90 pounds of 4.0 per cent milk, A-0, and is 



able to consume feed for the support of only 65 pounds of milk, 



A-B, she will have to make up the deficiency, B-0, 25 pounds, 



16 



