ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 179 



DOES IT PAY TO FEED OUR DAIRY COWS GROUND 



FEED? 



(Premium of a scientific new style Sweep Grinder valued at $35.00, 

 offered by King-man & Co., St. Louis, Mo.; won by W. R. Hostetter. 



It is difficult for a person to prove a question that is self- 

 evident or at least seems so. It might seem foolish to try to 

 prove that it pays to feed our cows at all, but it is really a fact 

 that some farmers seem to figure to see how little they can feed 

 their cows and have them live without regard to profit, instead 

 of how much profit can be made by judicious and liberal feeding. 

 So long as the former class of farmers exist it will be necessary 

 to present some arguments to prove things that are self-evident 

 to the latter class. 



After feeding cows for twenty-five years we can safely say 

 that the only person who can get along without ground feed is 

 the farmer who has a silo and he can not get along without it if 

 bran, shorts, and oil meal are considered ground feed. Even 

 the man with a silo must grind his oats if he wants to get its 

 value. 



Although what the majority of people do may not always be 

 the best thing to do, we may consider in a case of this kind 

 where it is matter of amount of profit that the majority would 

 probably be in the right. 



Among our acquaintances the successful dairymen invariably 

 grind their corn and oats and I think there is no doubt but this 

 is true everywhere. 



We know of a few dairymen who feed shock corn in the 

 yard but this is only part of the ration and they always have 

 hogs in the same yard and feed cows ground feed in the barn. 



Oats are one of the best grains to feed milk cows, but if fed 

 whole fully one-half of it will be lost on account of the cows' in- 



