Part Four — Miscellaneous Articles on 

 Feeding 



XXm. Feeding Dry Stock 



AUL authorities on dairying agree that cows should have 

 a rest between lactation periods. Opinions differ as 

 to what the length of that period should be. Pure- 

 bred breeders who do much advanced registry testing are 

 often accused of milking their large seven-day-record cows 

 "only six months in the year. This criticism is for the most 

 part unfounded. A cow needs to make a big yearly record. 

 From reliable sources of information it seems that two 

 months is about the correct length of time for a cow to rest. 

 From data on 496 cows in a cow testing association, those 

 cows dry for two months produced more butterfat and made 

 a larger net profit per year than those which were allowed to 

 rest only one month. 



Eckles, of Missouri, regards a period of six weeks long 

 enough unless the cow is thin in flesh. So far as there is 

 available data it seems to make no difference in average 

 annual returns per cow, whether the lactation period is nine, 

 ten or twelve months long, so long as there is a rest period 

 of six to eight weeks between lactation periods. It is usually 

 best, however, to plan the breeding of the herd so that each 

 cow will produce a calf once a year. Whether all the cows 

 will be bred to come in in the fall or spring must depend on 

 the market for milk and the market for stock. A little atten- 

 tion to time of breeding will enable a breeder to keep the 

 amount of milk produced daily uniform for the year. His 

 particular market may be better for his surplus stock at one 

 tim,e of year than at another. For the greatest success all 

 these points must be considered in fijoing the time for 

 breeding each cow. 



There are some cows that it is difficult to dry off. All 

 cows should be dried off gradually. If the cow is giving a 

 lot of milk when it comes time to begin the rest period, her 

 concentrate allowance should be withheld, and if necessary, 

 her roughage limited to timothy hay, although it is seldom 

 necessary to go to this extreme. Milk her once a day for 

 several days, then but once in two days and so on. graduall}- 



Page One Hundred One 



