FOOD FOR MILCH COWS IN WINTER 269 



wheat, barley, oats, peas, and flax. The number of these 

 that shall be combined in each instance should be deter- 

 mined by relative suitability in growing them. Some- 

 times only two will be grown together. The aim should 

 be to have one of them wheat to furnish the bran element 

 in the concentrate. In other instances, the mixed crop 

 may contain all the grains mentioned. Oats and wheat 

 make a favorite combination. When grains are thus 

 grown together they yield more, as a rule, than when 

 grown alone. The yield of the oats grown alone could 

 also be greatly increased by improved methods of grow- 

 ing them. No kind of grain taken alone is better or 

 even as well adapted to furnish food for dairy cows 

 as oats, and yet, owing to the shortness of supply, the 

 feeding of oats is relatively too costly. Mature corn, 

 ■properly grown, may be made to furnish enough of this 

 concentrate for cows in many instances. The growing 

 of such grains also, as oats and peas, in combination, 

 cutting them a little tmder-ripe and feeding them with- 

 out threshing, is labor-saving, and will also tend to 

 lower the amount of added concentrates called for. The 

 importance of aiming to grow foods on the farm, rather 

 than to buy them, cannot be easily over-estimated. 



When choosing concentrates for cows in winter, the 

 aim should be so to select them that the ration shall 

 be in approximate balance. This will mean that the 

 concentrates fed, and the proportions in which they 

 should be fed, will be largely determined by the nature 

 of the roughage. For instance, should the roughage be 

 clover or alfalfa hay protein foods, it will be in order to 

 make corn a prominent factor in the meal portion, but 

 should the fodder be chiefly corn ensilage or corn stover, 

 or fodder rich in carbohydrates, then the proportion of 

 corn as grain or meal added should be small. It is thus 

 very evident that in selecting foods and adjusting the 

 proportions of each that shall be fed, the necessity for 

 careful thought and careful calculation is ever present. 



