560 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 13, 1920 
Live Stock Matters 
Conducted By Prof. F. C. Minkler 
Questions in Dairy Feeding 
1. I am tising the following formula 
for my herd of Holsteins. feeding 1 lb. to 
lbs. of milk, with 35 lbs. silage and 
what grass hay and corn fodder 
(shredded) they will eat clean. Do you 
consider this a good ration? 1.500 lbs. 
bran. 1.500 lbs. gluten, 1.000 lbs. white 
meal. 1.000 lbs. cottonseed meal. 500 lbs. 
linseed meal. 300 lbs. ground oats. 2. 
Will you balance a ration for me. replac¬ 
ing such ingredients if possible in the 
above with corn-and-cob meal, which I 
now have, home-grown? 3. I can deliver 
water in my cows' feed trough. IIow 
often should they lie watered ? 4. Should 
I add salt to the above ration, or should 
I feed it independently? 5. In a well- 
ventilated cow stable what would be a 
suitable temperature during cold spells? 
6. Would mangel beets supplement the 
above ration advantageously? If so. how 
many would be needed for a herd of 20? 
7. What would be an average yield per 
acre of mangel beets? c. c. 
Massachusetts. 
1. Your ration is well suited for feed¬ 
ing Holstein cows. I think you are feed¬ 
ing more bran than is necessary, and I 
would reduce this to 1.000 lbs. You could 
replace the white meal (which 1 take to 
be either hominy or cornmeal) with corn- 
and-cob meal, pound for pound. None of 
the other materials are carbo-hydrate car¬ 
riers with the exception of the oats, and 
I am sure these should not be eliminated. 
2. I should water the cows twice daily. 
After the cows have cleaned up their 
morning feeding the trough should be 
swept out and the cows given all the 
water that they would drink. No doubt 
you make your feeding of hay at noon, 
which practice is quite generally approved. 
I should give them another watering just 
previous to milking or feeding in the 
afternoon or evening. I take it that you 
milk them before they are fed in the 
morning, aud that they are probably fed 
after the milking is finished in the eve¬ 
ning. A great deal of experimental work 
has been conducted designed to determine 
the best means of watering dairy cows. 
We have very little conclusive evidence 
which, in my judgment, goes to show that 
the question, while an important one and 
clearly a limiting factor in milk produc¬ 
tion. is not as complicated as we are 
often led to believe. Of course the indi¬ 
vidual cup system is perhaps ideal where 
a cow has access to fresh water at all 
times. Nevertheless, situated as you are. 
I am inclned to believe that two water¬ 
ings a day will meet every reasonable de¬ 
mand. 
3. It is a general practice among dairy 
farmers to supply about an ounce of salt 
daily per cow. It is known that salt im¬ 
proves the appetite of animals, and in¬ 
creases substantially the flow of the di¬ 
gestive juices; therefore it should be fur¬ 
nished in ample amounts. There is a 
difference of opinion as to whether 
salt should be mixed with the grain, or 
whether it should be supplied separately 
in the manger after the grain ration has 
been taken care of. Personally. I prefer 
to feed salt by itself, largely because 
some cows will require more salt than 
others at stated intervals: and some cows 
will mess over their grain ration a great 
deal more and waste considerable of it 
if salt is incorporated in the mixture. In 
order to make sure that cows have access 
to all the salt that they relish it is a 
good practice to have a box located either 
in the yard or shed that will provide a 
supply of salt at all times. Unless milch 
cows have access to salt abnormal con¬ 
ditions will soon appear, which will re¬ 
sult in a general breakdown. Evidences 
of an insufficient amount of this material 
are suggested by a haggard appearance, 
lusterless eye. a rough coat, and a very 
rapid decline in both weight and produc¬ 
tion. 
5. As near 50 degrees Fahrenheit as 
possible. 
G. There is very little to be gained by 
feeding mangels when one has an abund¬ 
ance of silage. It is true that 25 lbs. of 
silage aud 25 lbs. of beets would perhaps 
be more acceptable than 35 or 40 lbs. of 
silage, due chiefly to the fact that it sup¬ 
plies a greater variety. Nevertheless, it 
costs a great deal more to grow beets 
than it does to grow corn, owing to the 
extra labor required in thinning and hoe¬ 
ing the beets. An acre of mangels will 
yield from 25 to 40 tons. It would be 
appropriate to feed from 30 to 40 lbs. of 
the mangel beets with silage; or, if you 
exclude silage, you could feed as much as 
70 lbs. per cow per day. 
7. Mangel beets, in rows two feet 
apart and growing about eight inches in 
the row. will yield from 25 to 40 tons 
per acre, depending of course upon season 
conditions and the producing capacity of 
the area where they are planted. They 
are much more expensive than corn to 
produce, and will not begin to yield the 
same amount of digestible nutrients. 
Ration for Milch Cow 
Can you tell me what a balanced ration 
would be, made up of the following? 
Ground oats, rye. corn-and-cob meal, lin¬ 
seed meal and bran, using as much of the 
homegrown grain as possible. I feed from 
12 to 15 lbs. of mangels, with grain, night 
and morning. Roughage is cornstalks 
and Timothy hay. Cow has been milked 
one month since freshening, and gives 
about 12 lbs. of very rich milk to a milk¬ 
ing. M. M. M. 
New York. 
A useful ration, utilizing chiefly the 
homegrown products that you mention, 
and supplemented with a sufficient amount 
of concentrates to provide the necessary 
protein, for a cow yielding 25 lbs. of milk 
per day, would be provided in the follow¬ 
ing : Corn-and-cob meal. 150 lbs.; ground 
oats. 100 lbs.; wheat bran. 100 lbs.; lin¬ 
seed meal, 150 lbs. I would not feed any 
of the rye to a cow yielding milk, as it is 
not well suited for this purpose. It 
would be appropriate to feed more than 
15 lbs. of mangel beets morning and even¬ 
ing, largely because they are made up 
chiefly of water and do not yield very 
much digestible matter. Timothy hay is 
ill suited for feeding dairy cattle. It is 
coarse, unpalatable and unwholesome, and 
requires about 85 per cent of the energy 
it contributes to digest itself. You would 
have better results from the use of clover 
or mixed hay. The cow should be fed a 
sufficient quantity of grain to maintain 
her normal weight, and this will require 
approximately 1 lb. of this mixture for 
each 3 or 4 lbs. of milk produced. If she 
gains in flesh, reduce the ration, and if 
the addition of a pound or two daily 
would increase the milk flow it would be 
justified. 
Injured Teat 
I have a cow that freshened December 
15. A few days later she had milk fever; 
was given the oxygen treatment and re¬ 
covered. One teat was very large aud 
had a bad cut, so we used a milking tube. 
"We used a tube about 3 in. long. My 
hired man had to milk for a time. When 
I started to milk later I discovered that 
teat could not be milked by hand, and the 
end was quite hard. I inserted the tube; 
as it entered it struck something hard. I 
pushed the tube through this and the 
milk started to flow, the tube only being 
in about 1 in. It is impossible to milk 
this teat by hand. What could you ad¬ 
vise? c. Xi. R. 
New York. 
From your description it would seem 
that the milking tube had not been care¬ 
fully inserted, and that it has either irri¬ 
tated or punctured the delicate tissue of 
tin 1 teat. Either this condition has pre¬ 
vailed. or the tube, not being properly 
sterilized, has infected the chamber. 
There is very little that, can be done. The 
sphincter muscle has probably ceased to 
function, aud if the irritation is relieved 
you may have a leaky teat. It will be 
necessary to use the milking tube for 
some time, especially to start the flow of 
mi'k. Gradually manipulate the teat and 
udder, massaging it with some lotion that 
will have the effect of keeping the skin 
soft and pliable. Of course you need not 
be reminded that the milking tube should 
be carefully sterilized and every precau¬ 
tion taken to avoid introducing any infec¬ 
tion into the milk chamber. 
—perhaps he’s a quitter—but can 
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who have milked cows all your 
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