FEED AND CARE OF DAIRY COWS I9I 



affects the quality of butter and for this reason it is custo- 

 mary to feed less than 3 pounds a day. 



Oats. — Ground oats make excellent feed for cows in milk. The 

 selling price regulates the extent of its use in dairy feeding. 

 It may form the whole grain part of the ration and when 

 mixed with corn meal, wheat bran, ground barley or rye meal, 

 an excellent ration may be completed with hay and stover. 

 Oats is easily digested and bulky and may be fed economi- 

 cally when the price is slightly higher than corn. 



Pea Meal and ground oats when mixed together offer a suitable 

 feed. About Ys pea meal together with J^ oats or bran is 

 an ideal feed. This concentrate is fed in far northern sec- 

 tions with good success 



Vegetable Oil By-Products. — Linseed meal, cotton-seed meal 

 and cotton-seed hulls are used considerably for dairy herds. 

 Cotton-seed is sometimes fed but at the present prices it is 

 more advisable to sell it to the oil mills. It is a good feed. 

 Linseed meal and cotton-seed meal are both used to furnish 

 protein in rations. A study of Table I shows these feeds to 

 contain high protein contents. Practical feeders advise that 

 not over 4 pounds of cotton-seed meal be furnished per day 

 and that some other grain accompany it in a ration. 



Linseed meal is very popular in the foreign countries where 

 it is used a great deal for feeding. This foreign demand has 

 caused the ernployment of this feed to be too expensive for 

 supplying the protein of dairy rations in some sections. Three 

 to four pounds of this concentrate give excellent results with 

 dairy cows. 



Cotton-seed hulls, which are very light and bulky, furnish 

 excellent roughage in dairy rations. Too much hulls are not 

 desirable and 12 to 14 pounds a day are enough. The price of 

 this feed must be considered by the feeder. There is a great 

 variation in the composition of this feed, depending on the 

 amount of broken kernels present. They are generally fed near 

 the oil mills. 



Alcoholic By-Products. — Malt sprouts, dried brewers' grains, 

 and dried distillers' grains are protein concentrates of value for 



