262 THE MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF CATTLE 



reasonably good fodder for milch cows, but if coarse 

 in growth, cut over-ripe and also over-cured, it is 

 little if any better than straw of some of the cereals. 

 The value of hay from the leading grasses, as timothy, 

 Russian brome, and those furnished by the yet unbroken 

 prairies, are not greatly different in their value for pro- 

 ducing milk. 



Straw from some of the small cereals is so unsuited 

 for milk production as to be virtually without value for 

 such a use when fed directly. Such are rye and wheat 

 straw. Oat straw is valuable when well saved, and pea 

 straw, bright and good, is of still higher feeding value. 

 For feeding directly none of these is much used by 

 dairymen, but when run through a cutting box and 

 mixed with cut hay in quantities not too large, they may 

 prove helpful when the supply of other and better fodders 

 is limited. 



When feeding for milk, and foods must be pur- 

 chased to bring the feeding into approximate balance, it 

 is more legitimate to secure concentrates that will accom- 

 plish this than to secure coarse fodders. The latter are 

 too bulky to be transported to any considerable distance 

 without undue relative cost being incurred. In other 

 words, the aim should be to make the concentrates 

 rather than the fodders bring the food ration into ap- 

 proximate balance. 



It should also be noticed that the coarse fodders are 

 fed to cows in milk up to the limit of their capacitv to 

 consume them after they have consumed the other food 

 given. The grain fed and the succulent food when it is 

 fed are given, first, in quantities that are limited, after 

 which the coarse fodders are fed without any other 

 restriction than that mentioned above. 



Nature of the succulence. — The necessity that exists 

 for feeding more or less succulent foods to cows in milk 

 if maximum results arc to be reached is recognized by 

 all dairymen, howe\er the)' may differ in their views as 



