Feeding Dairy Cattle 



Warm weather is a disturbing factor in long-time as 

 well as in short-time records. It cannot be avoided in the 

 long-time records and the best that can be done is to keep 

 the cows as comfortable as possible. There should be plenty 

 of shade where they can get out of the hot sun and away 

 from flies. Anything that can be done to relieve the cows 

 from flies will bring ample reward. There are many useful 

 spray materials on the market that can be used to good 

 advantage." 



In addition to the above general statements of Mr. Allen, 

 I wish to add the specific treatment of Glista Ernestine dur- 

 ing the record that she made in the year 1920. \\'e will begin 

 with a summary of her feeding during the lactation period 

 previous to her 1920 record. 



In 1919, Glista Ernestine calved February 15. This last 

 lactation ended the middle of January, 1920, and she calved 

 again April 21, 1920. The rest period between was four- 

 teen weeks. In this last lactation period Ernestine pro- 

 duced 22,854.6 pounds of milk containing 791.04 pounds of 

 butterfat. 



HER FEED 

 During this lactation period Ernestine ate the following 

 amount of feed : 



3860 'pounds hay 



8810 pounds silage 



1425 pounds roots 



3459 pounds dried beet pulp 



7322 pounds grain 



If we divide the amount of milk by the amount of grain 

 we will find that she used her grain just as most cows do. 

 She gave an average of 3.1 pounds of milk for each pound of 

 grain that she ate. It might be said that the beet pulp should 

 be considered as grain. I do not think it should in this case, 

 if ever, because Glista Ernestine ate sparingly of silage and 

 the silage was restricted all the way through, the beet pulp 

 being soaked and used as succulence in its place. It seems 

 to be better to restrict the amount of silage with test cows 

 and use more roots and beet pulp in its place. 



The great saving of feed in this case, as with all big pro- 

 ducers is the saving of maintenance. The amount of feed 

 necessary for maintenance is in proportion to live weight. 

 Therefore, only one-half as much feed is necessary for the 

 maintenance of the machinery when 20,000 pounds of milk 

 is produced by one cow than if two cows have to be sup- 

 ported over a period of twelve months to produce 10,000 

 pounds of milk each. 

 Page Sixty-seven 



