FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 217 



Open Shed or Covered Barnyard 



The open shed or covered barnyard is a practical 

 method of housing' dairy cows. It provides the best known 

 method of saving and preserving all the fertilizing consti- 

 tuents of the manure ; it permits the feeding under shelter 

 of rough materials such as cornstalks and makes possible 

 their utilization for bedding; when there is plenty of bed- 

 ding, cows so housed keep cleaner than those confined in 

 stanchions. These' are the principal points in favor of the 

 open-shed system. 



In an experiment at the Beltsville station it was found 

 that the cows in the open shed produced a little more milk, 

 but at a greater cost for feed, than the cows in the closed 

 barn. The^ more timid cows were fought away from the 

 feed racks in the, shed, which resulted in a much lower pro- 

 duction from such cows. Probably it would be' a matter 

 of economy to confine the cows at feeding time. Cows so 

 housed should be dehorned. 



The labor required under the two systems was slightly 

 greater with the open shed. Had the cows been milked in 

 the open shed this would not have been the casei, but since 

 this practice is not recommended in the production of mar- 

 ket milk, the cows in this experiment were taken to a sep- 

 arate stable for milking. Sixty-eight per cent more bed- 

 ding was used in the open shed. 



Stall Equipment 



Of the various methods of confining cows, the swing- 

 ing stanchion which allows considerable freedom, has met 

 with the greatest popular approval. The old-fashioned 

 rigid stanchion is being replaced with this more humane de- 

 vice. But even the swinging stanchion fails to allow enough 

 freedom to meet the desires of many dairymen who are 

 trying to get maximum production regardless of expense. 

 These dairymen use box stalls. 



By confining in stanchions less space is required, the 

 labor of feeding, milking, and cleaning the stable is mater- 

 ially lessened, and the bedding needed is only onewfourth 



