96 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 9 
‘'THE BALANCED RATION.” 
THE SCIENCE OF FEEDING STOCK. 
Part XVI. 
We have quite a number of questions 
about the difference in the rations to be 
fed to cows giving milk, and to those 
putting on fat. As a matter of theory, 
the fattening cow should be fed a con¬ 
siderably higher proportion of the fat- 
formers than the milking cow ; yet cows 
differ so widely in their capacity for 
storing up fat in the body, that it is 
evident that the individuality of the 
animal must be considered. Still, there 
are a good many situated somewhat like 
this man : 
How shall we feed in order to fatten a cow while 
she is giving- milk—both in winter and after she 
is turned out to pasture ? Many of us buy cows 
that soon prove unprofitable, and it is the ques¬ 
tion how to get them fit for beef in the quickest 
•way. FARMKIt. 
When a man breeds his heifers, he 
knows pretty well what they will do ; 
because in the majority of cases, their 
conduct in the dairy has been deter¬ 
mined by their ancestors—near and re¬ 
mote. Buying cows is somewhat of a 
lottery, because you must usually judge 
by their shape and size without know¬ 
ing whether their parents cursed or 
blessed them as regards their dairy 
ability It doesn't require even ABC 
science to show that if such cows do not 
pay their board in milk, they should be 
beefed as soon as possible. Naturally, 
the “balance” that would make them do 
their best for milk, will not cause them 
to lay on the most fat, since the two 
operations are quite different, dlow 
change the food so as to make that 
robber cow into salable beef in the 
shortest time? Mere theory will not 
answer here. Let us see just what is 
done at Cornell—where about the most 
practical science we have in this country 
may be found : 
Fattening the Dairy Cow. 
“ In our locality, but very few of the 
butchers do any slaughtering whatever, 
and only here and there a man will buy 
cows at any price. We have found that 
animals that are in medium flesh, have 
nearly as good sale as those that are 
what would be called fat. Hence we 
usually push off such a cow as soon as we 
can find a man that will take her. When 
a cow is bought fresh in milk, and thin 
or fairly thin in flesh, and is put in a 
herd receiving - a good milk ration, one of 
two things is pretty sure to happen. She 
will either increase markedly in her 
milk flow, or she will gain in flesh with¬ 
out gaining in milk. In the latter case, 
as soon as it is seen that she ill be un¬ 
profitable as a milk producer, the grain 
ration is changed to one of clear corn 
meal, and she is dried off as rapidly as 
possible. Under such treatment, she 
will be in fairly good flesh as soon as she 
is dry, and a few weeks later, is sold to 
the first butcher that will make a fair 
offer for her. Our. butchers prefer an 
animal that has been dry for two or 
three weeks, to one that is still in milk, 
even though the latter may be in better 
flesh. 
“ When a cow is bought fresh in the 
fall and it is determined not to keep her 
A farm of 420 acres, having 12,000 fruit 
trees—apples, pears, peaches, cherries 
planted five years ago, can be bought this 
winter at a low price. The farm nearly 
adjoins the city of Chillicotlxe, O., lies on 
fine rolling land well adapted to fruit 
culture and stock raising. The owner 
died and the land came into the hands of 
a corporation whose business is not farm¬ 
ing or fruit growing. It is a fine oppor¬ 
tunity for the right man. For full in¬ 
formation address A. C. Houghton, 81 
Wheeler Building, Columbus, O.— Adv, 
for a second season, we make it a general 
rule to get her out of the way before the 
first of the following May. A cow that 
has been well fed all winter, will seldom 
gain and will often lose in weight for the 
first few weeks on pasture. In the same 
way a cow that is fresh in the spring, we 
fatten, so far as we fatten her at all, on 
the fresh pastures that we usually have 
in September and October.” h. ii. wing. 
That is simple enough—it is a case of 
pure corn meal as grain for fattening. 
That is the quickest treatment, and we 
can see how closely this would follow a 
theoretical “balance,” since we all know 
that corn meal is the fattening grain 
above all others. We do not doubt that 
this change from milk to fat, can be made 
cheaper and more quickly when ensilage 
or roots form part of the ration. The 
dressed beef trade has made a great 
change in dairying, because it has almost 
killed the demand for fat cows except in 
localities far off the main railroads. That 
is another argument in favor of breeding 
your own cows. It is also an argument 
in favor of special dairy breeds and 
against using big cows on the plea that 
they will make good beef after serving 
their time in the dairy. 
Another thing growing out of this dis¬ 
cussion. is the matter of varying the 
cow’s ration according to the amount of 
milk she gives. This is the way one 
man puts it: 
I would like to know liow to feed one cow giv¬ 
ing- 20 quarts of milk per day; one cow giving 12 
quarts of milk per day, and one cow giving six 
quarts of milk per day. IIow much grain per 
day should be fed each cow after giving them 15 
to 20 pounds of Timothy hay and 10 pounds of 
corn fodder, having 3J4 pounds of ears on it? 
How much grain should be fed for each gallon of 
milk—wheat middlings and oil meal, new pro¬ 
cess? I find that each cow must be fed according 
to the amount of milk she gives. I consider the 
12-quart cow the medium farmer’s cow. If so, 
the cow giving 20 quarts and over, and the one 
giving six or less quarts per day, must be fed 
differently. The cows weigh 1,200 pounds each. 
Menominee, Mich. m. n. 
Now that may be getting it down to a 
pretty fine point, but there is something 
in it. A good feeder watches his cows 
and gives them more or less as their con¬ 
dition and milk yield seem to warrant. 
With two cows of the same weight stand¬ 
ing side by side, one giving four quarts 
and the other 10, you would not consider 
it economy to feed them equal shares of 
grain. But what difference should you 
make ? That’s the point, and to answer 
it we purpose to get the experience of 
some of the most observing and practi¬ 
cal dairymen we can find. Theoreti¬ 
cally, the proper thing would be to 
grade the cows and tie them up in groups 
graded according to the amount they 
give. Then feed the groups different 
weights or different mixtures of grain. 
Now we shall see what practical men 
will have to say to that. Remember one 
thing, though—a “ spunky,” nervous 
cow will need more food than a staid old 
grandmother of the same weight. So it 
all comes back, after all, to the fact that 
“ The Balanced Ration ” is at best but a 
theory, which you must mix with your 
own common sense in applying to the 
food for your cows. The “ standard ” 
ration gives you a fair basis for experi¬ 
menting, and the analyses show you how 
to get to the standard or change it. In 
a nutshell, that is all there is to it. 
Now, before we leave this subject, let 
us review by looking over two rations. 
This is one from southeast Massachu¬ 
setts : 
We are trying to make A No. 1 butter, and are 
feeding clover hay. The grain ration is 3 l A 
pounds of wheat shorts, 1 >4 pound of corn meal 
two pounds of oat feed, per day. Can you sug¬ 
gest any improvement ? The cows are grade 
Jerseys. 
We do not know the prices for these 
foods, but for our own feeding, we would 
want more corn meal for first-class but¬ 
ter. In a general way, we would suggest 
dropping the shorts, and feeding two 
pounds of bran and three pounds of corn 
meal—continuing the oat feed. 
Here is a cold country ration from 
New Brunswick : 
I have been using the following ration for but¬ 
ter for several years, and would like The R. 
N.-Y.’s opinion on it: Mixed hay, 15 pounds ; 
roots, turnips and mangels, 40 pounds ; cotton¬ 
seed meal, 6 pounds for fresh cows. The different 
grain foods cost here as follows : Cotton-seed 
meal, $24 per ton ; corn meal, $27 per ton ; bran, 
$20 per ton. In 1891, I was milking five cows, and 
on the above ration, they made 1,930 pounds of 
butter, and I sold $35 worth of cream and milk ; 
an average of about 400 pounds per cow. In 1894, 
milking 13 cows most of them young, in June— 
nine months after calving—they were averaging 
one pound per day, which would make an average 
of over 300 pounds per year. I sold milk part of 
the time. h. t. 
Milltown, N. B. 
This is what the ration contains : 
Muscle- 
Fat- 
Pure 
Pounds. 
makers. 
formers. 
fat. 
15 hay. 
.53 
6.46 
.15 
40 roots. 
.50 
2.16 
.(XI 
6 cotton-seed meal... 
....2.14 
1.33 
.69 
Total. 
.3.17 
9.95 
.93 
Multiplying the pure fat by 2%, we 
have 2.33, which, added to 9.95, equals 
12.28 fat-formers, or a feeding ratio of 
less than one to four. Our opinion is 
that this is too strong feeding, and that 
the cows cannot stand it more than two 
seasons. Even when such an amount of 
roots is fed, we would expect abortion, 
garget and kidney troubles from the 
feeding of six pounds of cotton-seed 
meal per day. At the same time, the re¬ 
sults given above are excellent, and at 
the prices named, the cotton-seed meal 
is the cheapest grain. We caution our 
readers not to try to duplicate that 
ration, even though an experiment with 
over three pounds of cotton-seed meal 
would seem to increase the milk yield. 
(Continued on next page.) 
£tti.$crUanrou?s gUvmi.oinfl. 
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You can then write those cured and learn 
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St. Jacobs Oil is made to cure 
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