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VVI 



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Feeding Dairy Cattle 



The dairy farmer with pure-bred Holstein-Friesian cattle, 

 who is aiming at a high production with that herd, will, 

 without an_\- doubt, keep up the fertility of his farm ; and, 

 for that matter, add to its fertility, Let us take the case 

 of a farmer who has 20 cows, the average production of 

 which he aims to make 10,000 pounds per year. This is a 

 good high aim, but not impossible of achievement, and no 

 one should be satisfied with less. What must this farmer 

 do to make mone\- for himself and at the same time tvirn 

 over his land to posterity better than he found it? He must 

 do thice things: ( i) He must grow legumes and corn silage 

 for^ roughage ; (2) he must be careful in the purchase of con- 

 centrates; (3) if he sells money crops, he must aim to pur- 

 chase enough commercial fertilizer to replace the material 

 soW in the cash crops. We will suppose that this farmer 



Is from his farm each year the following: Five cows, 



weghing 1,000 pounds each; 15 tons of timothy hay, 1,000 



hels of potatoes, and 200,000 pounds of milk. The fertil- 



■jsold from the farm would be: 



Nitrogen, Phosphoric acid, Potash 

 pounds pounds pounds 



Five 1000-pound cows 116.5 77.5 9.0 



15 tons timothy hay 297.0 93.0 408.0 



1000 bushels potatoes 210.0 72.0 318.0 



200,000 pounds milk 1120.0 380.0 340.0 



Therefore this farmer must balance these amounts with 

 same amount of fertilizing constituents brought onto 

 farm in one form or another. He can do it by the pur- 

 cUse direct of commercial fertilizers, but is it necessary for 

 hi 1 to do this? No; only in part. If he is judicious in the 

 seection of feeds, he can make up a large part of this loss 

 lough those that he purchases. 



To produce 10,000 pounds of milk in one year, it will be 

 ncessary for him to feed each cow at least 12 pounds of a 

 gCJd mixture of grains 250 days in the year. At this rate 

 fc the 20 cows, 2,2 tons at least will be necessary. A good 

 nxture at present prices is 500 pounds distillers' dried 

 gains, 500 pounds hominy feed, 500 pounds wheat bran, 300 

 punds gluten feed, 200 pounds linseed oil meal. 



This is an example of the kind of mixture that should be 

 fd to bring the most fertility to the farm and be of high 

 foding value also. Bow much fertility will 60,000 pounds 



this mixture add to the soil after it has passed through 

 te dairy cow? 



First, we must see what becomes of the nitrogen, phos- 

 poric acid and potash in the feed when it is fed to a dairy 

 (w. She is normally neither gaining nor losing live weight, 



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