The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
551 
ought to be able to obtain gluten meal and 
wheat bran. A grain ration consisting of 
500 lbs. of corn-and-cob meal. .‘100 lbs. of 
gluten and 200 lbs. of wheat bran or 
buckwheat bran would give you fairly 
good results with grade Holstein cows, 
provided they are in good condition and 
have been well cared for during their dry 
period. Of course they will eat the daisy 
and Timothy hay and relish it to a cer¬ 
tain degree; but there is very little nour¬ 
ishment or substance in such coarse 
roughage. It would be to your advantage 
if you could secure some clover or Alfalfa 
hay. or even bright, well-cured corn fod¬ 
der would be far more useful than the 
cheap hay you name. Of course if you 
have oats or barley they could be in¬ 
cluded in the mixture, as a pound of 
barley is nearly equal in feeding value 
to a pound of corn. Failing, as you did, 
to give ns the prices or materials avail¬ 
able. we have endeavored to suggest a 
mixture that might meet, your conditions. 
Supply more facts and conditions and we 
will try again. 
Feeding Cows for Test 
Does the difference lie in the fat pre¬ 
dominance of the Ayrshire over the Hol¬ 
stein, and what is the basis for figuring 
what a 1,000-lb. 4 per cent cow, will re¬ 
quire, as against a 1.000-lb. 5 per cent 
cow? I would like a ration for A.vreliires 
with the above explained, as we wish to 
try out some cows that are giving S.OOO 
to 10.000 lbs. milk on ordinary feed and 
care, and see if we can get them ready 
to go on test next year. We shall have 
silage. Alfalfa or mixed bay. and beet 
pulp and any other feed that will get 
milk. * I. N. T. 
New York. 
There are three general rules that 
should guide you in determining rations 
for dairy cows. They are as follows: 
Feed the cow all the roughage that she 
will consume. Feed as many pounds of 
grain per day as the cow yields in butter- 
fat per week, or approximately 1 lb. of 
grain for each 3 lbs. of milk produced 
per day. Feed all the grain that the cow 
will consume without gaining in weight; 
provide some form of succulence. While 
it is true that the amounts of dry matter 
ai^ digestible protein in a food ration 
should increase in proportion to the pro¬ 
duction of butterfat, there is no fixed 
rule that would apply in general practice 
in determining rations that can be based 
definitely on butterfat yields. Of course 
we have feeding standards for dairy cows 
based upon the WolfF-Lehmann, or the 
Armsby, method of calculation, and it is 
interesting to note the following require¬ 
ments for milk of different richness: 
FEED REQUIREMENTS FOR 1.000-I.B. DAIRY 
COWS PRODUCING 0.5 TO 2.0 1.15. RUTTER- 
FAT PER DAY, IN POUNDS. 
Total 
pry 
Digest¬ 
ible 
Digest¬ 
ible 
Matter 
I’rotein 
Matter 
Dairy cows (mainte¬ 
nance) . 
12.5 
.70 
7.9 
Production of butter¬ 
fat per day— 
T.oss than 0.5 lb. . 
18.2 
1.18 
10.6 
0.5 to 0.75 lb. . . 
1S.7 
1.49 
12.3 
0.75 to 1.0 lb... 
21.1 
1.S0 
14 1 
1.0 to 1.25 lb... 
23.6 
2.11 
15.S 
1.25.to 1.5 lbs.. 
26.0 
2.45 
17.6 
1.5 to 1.75 11*:.. 
2R.5 
2.74 
19.3 
1.75 to 2.0 lbs. . 
30.9 
3.05 
21.1 
It will be observed that there is only a 
Very slight distinction made in the re¬ 
quirements for a 1.000-lb. cow yielding 
4 or 5 per cent milk. It is generally cal¬ 
culated that, in view of the great differ¬ 
ence in the returns made by different cows 
from the feed taken, and the great valua¬ 
tion to which feeding stuffs are subject, 
both as affecting composition and digesti¬ 
bility. it is ill advised to make mathe¬ 
matically fine distinctions in feed require¬ 
ments based upon butterfat content. With 
silage you are reminded that experienced 
feeders do not feed test -cows very much 
of this succulence, rather preferring beet 
pulp or even mangel beets with Alfalfa 
hay. You could use to advantage a mix¬ 
ture made up as follows: 50 lbs. ground 
oats. 25 lbs. buckwheat middlings, 50 lbs. 
Wheat bran. 50 lbs. eornmeal, 50 lbs. oil- 
meal. 25 11*;. gluten. 15 lbs. cottonseed 
meal. 
Varying amounts of beet pulp could 
be fed. and this should be saturated with 
molasses, diluted 10 to 1 with warm wa¬ 
ter. The amount to feed, of course, would 
depend upon the production, and should 
also be gauged by the appetite and ca¬ 
pacity of the individual animal. It is 
curious enough to find cows that have 
most peculiar appetities. relishing com¬ 
bination mixtures that are clearly out of 
range when one applies the pencil and 
paper and endeavors to justify their likes 
and dislikes and base them upon fixed 
standards. So the first thing for a herds¬ 
man to discard in feeding test cows is 
the pencil and paper. Rather he must 
trust bis own ingenuity to supply an 
abundance <>f protein, carbohydrates and 
fats in palatable form, and use his intu¬ 
ition in estimating amounts and combina¬ 
tions. Bran, oats and beet pulp are the 
safety valves in a forcing ration, and the 
protein carriers must be introduced and 
limited only by the ability of the cow to 
digest the material and not go off feed. 
Find out first of all what the cow likes, 
give her sufficient variety to keep the edge 
on her appetite, and then use your best 
judgment in determining both the amount 
and the kind of feed to place before her. 
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Spring! 
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Branches in: 
