318 A STUDY OF FARM ANIMALS 



Among the 15 rations given above, it will be noted are 

 those suited to the far North, the Central West, the Western 

 states, the South, and New England. 



The feed for dry cows, as a rule, largely consists of silage 

 or roughage. It is important, however, that they be in good 

 condition at calving, in order to meet the drain of milk pro- 

 duction. Farmers who sell milk or butter usually plan to 

 have their cows freshen late in the fall, so that they may be 

 milked during the period of higher prices, and also at a time 

 when they can give more individual attention to live stock. 

 Pasture, therefore, may be about the only feed the cow will 

 receive on many farms. As the pastures get short, silage 

 or legume hay should be fed, if possible, and enough grain 

 given to put the cow in condition for freshening. In cases 

 where official testing is conducted, dry cows are often fattened 

 to fit them for record-making milk production. 



Feeding cows on pasture recjuires careful oversight. 

 When the green stuff is abundant, other feed may be un- 

 necessarJ^ As the grass gets short in July or August, it 

 should be supplemented, if possible, with silage or with 

 some soiling crop, such as corn, sorghum, clover, alfalfa, etc. 

 Further, some grain is desirable when the pastures get short. 

 The cows should be kept up in production as much as pos- 

 sible at this time, and a light grain feed will help. Experi- 

 ments on feeding grain to cows on pasture were conducted 

 at Cornell University for some years, when it appeared 

 that the extra milk yield did not pay for the feed; but there 

 was a secondary result from the feeding of the grain on 

 pasture.* "It was found in the Cornell experiments that in 

 the second year the cows that had received grain while on 

 pasture the year before did better than those that received 

 no grain. 



"Prof. Roberts holds that the benefit of grain on pasture 

 was an especially marked one in the development of the 

 young stock. This combination of feed showed up in their 



*Prof. E. S. Savage in Holstein-Friesian World, July 9, 1921. 



