Feeding Dairy Cattle 



farmers and others as well, look upon oats as a natural grain 

 feed for horses. 



One of the best uses which can be made of oats on a 

 dairy farm is as an ingredient of the growing ration. The 

 writer has found very useful as a mixture for growing young 

 stock of all ages the following : 



30 pounds ground oats or rolled oats 

 30 pounds wheat bran 

 30 pounds hominy or corn meal 

 10 pounds oil meal 



I have always liked rolled oats better than ground oats 

 and I think there is a real danger in having oats ground too 

 finely. The writer has had indirect experience with the feed- 

 ing of a car of heavy oats ground very finely, so finely that at 

 a distance away a bin of these finely ground oats could 

 hardly be distinguished from a bin of hominy feed from 

 white corn. In every case where these finely ground oats 

 were fed to dairy cows or to calves the animals would scour 

 and while it is hard to believe that the ground oats would 

 cause this trouble yet when these finely ground oats were 

 taken out of the ration this trouble disappeared. To be sure 

 this is only a single instance but it seems to the writer that 

 rolled oats would be more palatable and would serve every 

 purpose for which ground oats could be used and on a whole 

 would be more advantageous and more palatable to most 

 animals. 



Once or twice I have taken occasion to make a rough 

 survey of a number of the feeders of many advanced regis- 

 try animals with creditable records. In practically ever)- 

 case I have found that ground oats with wheat braii and 

 oil meal makes up the fitting ration, not always the combina- 

 tion given above for growing stock but of approximately 

 that combination. Most of the men fitting their animals 

 for advanced registry records seem to prefer a little larger 

 proportion of oil meal. Several cows have made 30-pound 

 records to the knowledge of the writer who have had the 

 above mixture of the equal parts of oats, wheat bran and 

 hominy with 10 pounds of oil meal used as the sole mixture 

 fed when cows were dry. 



A grain mixture composed of rolled oats alone does not 

 make up a bad mixture for young calves and growing stock. 

 If rolled oats and milk are good for children and babies, 

 rolled oats and milk should make an excellent ration for 

 growing milk-producing animals. 



Ground oats is a very favorite feed in the rations of those 



Page One Hundred Twenty-five 



