Feeding Dairy Cattle 



command a better market because of the uniformity of the 



amount of his product. 



It is not wise to pasture during their first summer, calves 

 dropped after Januar\- or February first. Flies bother the 

 young calves too much. Calves that are born before Janu- 

 ary first seem to stand their first summer on pasture all right 

 and make good gains. Therefore, the cost of raising a 

 heifer dropped during the fall is likely to be less than that of 

 one dropped later because of the greater utilization of 

 pasture. Pasture is very cheap feed any way it is computed 

 unless one has to give a greater valuation than $50 per acre 

 to the land. 



If skimmed milk is available it may be used to good 

 advantage until calves are a year or more old, although it is 

 not at all necessar}' after eight months. It will probably give 

 greater returns, fed to younger animals, than to those over 

 eight months. When calves or other young stock are on 

 pasture there is no greater pleasure to them than a cool, 

 dark basement, into which they may run during the heat of 

 the day and get rid of the flies. If the basement is made 

 rather dark the flies will leave them. 



If any of the herd of calves seem a little unthrifty it is a 

 very good thing to arrange matters so that these can have a 

 little grain to supplement the pasture. Of course there are 

 any number of feeds available for this purpose. A mixture 

 that is a favorite one with the author for all 3'oung ^tock is 

 the one already mentioned in feeding calves, 30 pounds 

 hominy, or corn meal; 30 pounds of ground oats; 30 pounds 

 of wheat bran, and 10 pounds of oil meal. If pasture is good 

 perhaps no grain will be needed during the best months 

 The amount of grain necessary for heifers is about four 

 pounds per dav up to the time of calving, of such a mixture 

 as the above. All the good clover hay and silage that she 

 will eat, and four to six pounds of grain, will keep the heifer 

 in good growing condition and put her in the right shape for 

 dropping her first calf. There are many other feeds and 

 mixtures as good as the one given above. Space will not be 

 taken to give other mixtures. Distillers' dried grains, gluten, 

 cottonseed meal after one year of age, brewers" dried grains, 

 malt sprouts, barley, buckwheat middlings, etc.; all make 

 excellent ingredients and may be used for rations for grow- 



Page Ninety-eight 



