172 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



a COW. Many people think they can curry a horse but 

 that it is sacrilege to curry a cow. It isn't. You can curry 

 a cow with perfect peace of mind. She will appreciate it. 

 And you can save many, many pounds of cream by currying 

 her and keeping her clean. 



What else must you do? Give her water, easily and 

 frequently available, not too cold. It doesn't need to be 

 warm water, but she shouldn't have to poke her nose 

 through a six-inch layer of ice like thousands of cows are 

 doing in this country today. She ought to be able to drink 

 volumes of it, one hundred pounds a day anyway. Let her 

 fill herself full of water, because milk is 88 per cent water. 

 Give her all the water she can drink, and in a way that she 

 will use large quantities of it. 



The next thing is bluegrass, juicy and palatable, so 

 we have got to make a feed that is palatable, juicy and 

 rich, so we make up a ration. In order to get the nutrients, 

 we use alfalfa hay and grains. In order to get something 

 that is soft and juicy, we usually have to use root crops or 

 silage, and as a result if you surround the cow with those 

 things, pure air in the barn, with good ventilation in the 

 barn, lots of straw on the floor, water, plenty of succulent 

 feed, plenty nutrition, protein-carrying feed, the old cow 

 will give from ten to twenty-five per cent more milk a day 

 than she will the fifteenth of June out there in the pasture, 

 simply because you have the climatic conditions at this 

 season of the year that stimulate a much more extensive 

 maximum appetite, so they will eat more at this season of ^ 

 the year than they will in the spring or summer. 



Now how could you make up that ration? Just a lit- 

 tle simple ration. I would use alfalfa, clover, cowpeas, 

 first, and then add — I would use corn silage. That is the 

 other part of the roughage. I would not take corn fodder, 

 turn her outside like you did last fall, and expect her to 

 produce. She won't. I wouldn't turn her outdoors today 

 and let her run in a stock field and expect her to produce. 

 I would give her silage and alfalfa, then make up a green 

 mixture. I will give you a suggested one: 



400 pounds ground corn, leaving the cob all out of it 



