FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 143 



Liberal Feeding Important to Profit 



In debating whether or not sweet clover will prove 

 valuable to him, the dairyman should not lose sight of the 

 fact that the kind and amount of feed which good cows 

 get, largely determines their production, and also that feed 

 is about 60 per cent of the cost of production. One of the 

 high points to be remembered in dairying, is that the top 

 of the ration makes the milk and the top of the milk makes 

 the profit. Thus a crop which comes so ne-ar to completely 

 solving the feeding problem for six months is surely worthy 

 of first consideration in planning for the feed production 

 of future years. 



Question: If you turn cows out on sweet clover pas- 

 ture in the spring you are apt to have trouble with bloat. 

 How would you avoid that? 



Prof. Fraser: If you turn them out when the cow is 

 full of her ordinary feed, wait until the dew is off, and 

 keep a little dry straw on the pasture, you will have no 

 trouble at all with bloat. The cows will eat some of this 

 dry straw. The same thing will prevent taint of milk. 

 Whenever you keep a cow's bowels in the right condition 

 you are not apt to have any trouble with tainted milk. 



When you once get them on the sweet clover pasture 

 you want to keep them on. If you keep them off over 

 night and turn them on again hungry next morning, you 

 are apt to have trouble. The only time I have ever known 

 them to have trouble with bloat was once in the middle of 

 May, when we had three frosts in central Illinois. They 

 ate that frosted alfalfa and it did make some of them bloat. 



Question: How about in the fall? 



Answer: It doesn't seem to be so bad in the fall. You 

 see, it is exceedingly green and succulent the middle of 

 May. By the time we get frost in the fall it is cooler and 

 it doesn't grow so fast. 



If your cows are giving over twenty-five pounds in 

 milk, you ought to feed grain. 



