FOOD FOR MILCH COWS IN WINTER 273 



usually much cheaper than the concentrate available, the 

 aim should be to utilize the roughage to the greatest 

 extent consistent with prudent feeding. Whether it 

 may be profitable, in some instances, to be content with 

 a somewhat lessened return in milk, may be a disputed 

 question, but the necessity for so preparing roughage 

 that the consumption thereof may, in many instances, 

 be increased, will not be disputed. Such preparation 

 relates to mechanical processes that add to the pala- 

 tability of the food. (See page 274.) 



In practice, feeders differ greatly in the amount of 

 concentrates fed. Some teachers have submitted the 

 following as a safe rule for guidance: Ascertain by 

 feeding the concentrate how much the cow can consume, 

 then lower the amount just enough that all that is fed 

 will be eaten up clean. Such a rule is clearly unsafe. 

 It would mean that the machinery of digestion would 

 be driven at a rate of speed so high that it would pre- 

 maturely, through over-taxing, impair the digestive 

 powers of the cow, and, through such impairment, would 

 lower her producing powers. Some cows fed by this 

 rule would consume not less than 18 pounds of concen- 

 trates in a day, or, probably, twice the amount that will 

 ordinarily suffice in prolonged feeding. While such feed- 

 ing may be admissible under some conditions, as when 

 the cow is to be sold at the close of the lactation period, 

 it is not admissible in a herd the cows of which are to 

 be retained for production from year to year. Such feed- 

 ing, in addition to being unduly costly, would in time 

 wreck any herd, since it drives the machinery of diges- 

 tion at too high a pressure. 



When cows are fed on good clover or alfalfa hay, 

 with a liberal supply, say, 30 to 40 pounds of corn or 

 sorghum ensilage, the rule will be safe which would 

 feed daily, to a cow weighing 1,000 pounds, about i 

 pound of concentrate to each 4 pounds of milk given 

 when the returns are average. But should they become 



