FEED AND CARE OF DAIRY COWS 



201 



Roots and Tubers. — Carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, Irish pota- 

 toes, turnips, rutabagas, etc., are feeds that exert a beneficial 

 effect on dairy cows. Irish and sweet potatoes usually com- 

 mand too high a price to warrant using them as feed. How- 

 ever, when the market price is low it sometimes pays to feed 

 them. Beet (mangel) sugar-beet, rutabagas, carrots, and tur- 

 nips are often fed with profit. These feeds increase milk pro- 



Fig. 15. — Roots (mangels), a good succulent feed. 



duction far above what would be expected from their chemical 

 composition. In northern sections where corn is easily grown 

 it is perhaps more economical to make silage than to grow roots 

 for feeding. The Nebraska Experiment Station found sugar 

 beets to have about the same feeding value as corn silage. The 

 Colorado Experiment Station found that one ton of beets is 

 equivalent to two tons of beet pulp. A great deal more dry 

 matter may be produced on the same area by growing corn, 

 14 



