188 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



How these conditions may be maintained will be discussed 

 in detail farther on. 



Grain Feeding While on Pasture. — There is some difference 

 of opinion on this question from the standpoint of economy. 

 There is no question but that a cow will produce milk if fed grain 

 while on pasture, and if a large yield is of more importance than 

 economy of production, grain should certainly be fed. The cow 

 that gives a small average quantity of milk will not produce but 

 very little more, if fed grain while on pasture. However, with 

 the heavy producing cow the case is quite different and it is nec- 

 essary that she be fed grain or she will not continue on the high 

 level of production for a very long time. The necessity for feed- 

 ing grain to the high producing cow arises from the fact she 

 cannot secure a sufficient amount of nutriments from the grass 

 alone and must have some concentrated feed in the form of grain 

 in order to continue to produce large quantities of milk. 



Experiments made by the Cornell Experimental Station, 

 covering four years, showed that while an increase of milk yield 

 was secured from grain feding, it was not economical to produce 

 it in this way. They secured only about an additional pound of 

 milk for each pound of grain fed. In these experiments the 

 pastures produced an abundance of nutritious grasses. They ob- 

 served, however, that the cows fed grain during the summer gave 

 better results after the grazing was over than those not having 

 received grain. This is also a matter of common observation 

 and should be taken into account in considering the advisability 

 of feeding grain. The point is that the cows fed grain stored a 

 considerable quantity of surplus nutriments on their body which 

 were afterwards available for production of milk. Where a 

 small amount of grain is fed, corn is as well adapted as anything 

 else, where it is cheaper than other feeds, since on account of the 

 comparative narrow nutritive value of the grass the corn does 

 not unbalance the ration. However, in case of feeding in large 

 quantities of grain, as would be necessary in the case of cows 

 producing from l 1 ^ to 2 pounds of fat per day or more, other 



