Feeding Dairy Cattle 



Expenditures for grain to be fed to dry cows bring in the 

 greatest return. They mean a larger, stronger calf, a cow- 

 better able to stand the strain of parturition and a good 

 send-of¥ in a new lactation period of high production. 



A cow always responds wonderfully to ever}- improvement 

 in methods of caring for and feeding her. 



XXrV. Feeding and Care of the Dairy Bull. 



MUCH is written and said about the feeding and the care 

 for the dair)' cow. Sometimes a short paragraph or 

 two is written about the method of leading or exer- 

 cising the bull, but very few men have a true appreciation 

 of the importance of the bull in the herd, and he does not 

 come in for his share of the study of feeding, exercise and 

 care. In feeding the dairy cow the results are at once 

 apparent. In feeding and caring for the bull the results are 

 not at once apparent, and oftentimes the IjuU is dead before 

 his real value is known. The writer has in mind the care of 

 a very prepotent bull, that was the sire of several thirty- 

 pound daughters, but his value was not recognized and he 

 was not kept. He was sacrificed earh-, not because he was 

 poorly fed or cared for, perhaps, but this ma\- have had si-mie- 

 thing to do with it. If he had been properl\- cared for and 

 kept in the best condition it perhaps would not have been 

 so easy for the owner to sacrifice him, and he would have 

 been kept longer and his value, through his daughters, 

 recognized before it was too late. 



In breeding and managing purebreds we cannot \vM too 

 much attention on the bull. He is so important. At pres- 

 ent, in raising pure-bred cattle, we are taught that nearK all is 

 in the breeding, and that the good or ill that there is in the 

 offspring is purely the result of heredity and that nothing can 

 be acquired during the life of the individual that can l)e trans- 

 mitted. Undoubtedly this is all true, except perhaps in one 

 particular, that is, in size and capacity. Feeding and care 

 and management do have an effect on size and on constitu- 

 tion, and in the opinion of the writer, there is some trans- 

 mission of these characteristics to the offspring. Good 

 envronment and liberal feeding will aid judicious selection 

 very materially in increasing th esize and capacity of the 

 indviduals iin any given family. 



If this is true, then how great is the importance of prop- 

 erly growing the males that are to be used for service, and 

 how great is the importance of properly feeding, exercising 



Page One Hundred Four 



