1120 
‘Pr* RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
June 19, 1920 
Live Stock Matters 
Conducted By Prof. F. C. Minkler 
Feeding Cows on Test 
Would you send me a balanced ration 
for Guernsey stock on test? We have on 
hand corn and cob meal, ground oats and 
ground barley, and can purchase any 
other feeds required to make up the ra¬ 
tion. For roughage we have silage of corn 
and Alfalfa mixed. Alfalfa hay which is 
rather poor in quality, being very coarse, 
and can pasture our cows a few hours 
each day on mixed grass with a little Al¬ 
falfa in it. I am not looking for the 
cheapest ration, but the one that will pro¬ 
duce the richest and largest amount of 
milk. State what amount of grain, silage 
and Alfalfa to feed twice daily while on 
pasture a few hours each day. I do not 
care to feed beet pulp or any grains that 
have to be soaked. h.a. b. 
Ohio. 
With a great variety of feeds available 
it ought to be a very easy task to combine 
a ration well suited for Guernsey cows on 
test. You are reminded, however, that 
cows under pressure and being forced for 
the purpose of making creditable Ad¬ 
vanced Registry records must be fed 
according to their individual likes and dis¬ 
likes, and a ration that might be well 
suited for such purposes might not be 
adapted to all of the cows in the group. 
What one may prefer and relish another 
one might sniff at and dislike. The suc¬ 
cessful herdsman will cater to the indi¬ 
vidual likes and dislikes of his charges 
and not confine his ration to any one mix¬ 
ture. Changes in the combination of the 
grains are often advantageous, as such 
procedure often will modify slightly the 
butterfat test. It must be admitted, how¬ 
ever. that only temporary changes can be 
made in the butterfat test by means of 
modifying the grain mixture. If any 
change occurs at all it is quite as likely 
to be lower as to go higher. 
With pasture grass containing some 
Alfalfa available it would be well to pro¬ 
vide only a limited amount of the silage. 
In fact, some of the most successful Ad¬ 
vanced Registry records have been report¬ 
ed where less than 15 or 20 lbs. of silage 
has been fed. In such circumstances 
moistened beet pulp has supplemented the 
silage and has beeu relied upon to provide 
succulence. 
Taking it for granted that your cows 
are of good size and in good order when 
they freshen, which, of course, is essen¬ 
tial, a ration consisting of 40 lbs. of corn 
and cob meal. 20 lbs. barley, 20 lbs. oats, 
30 lbs. oilmeal, 30 lbs. gluten meal. 20 lbs. 
wheat bran would combine variety, bulk 
and palatability. and provide sufficient di¬ 
gestible nutrients. The sprinkling in of 
a little more oilmeal. or more of some one 
of the ingredients that the cow might fan¬ 
cy. should be resorted to in case the cows 
could he induced to cat more of the feed 
without showing any bad results. There 
is no rule that would suggest the maxi¬ 
mum amount that should be fed to cows 
under test, but it is the practice to feed 
10 to 15 lbs. of grain to individuals dur¬ 
ing their flush flow of milk : that is. when 
they are yielding from 30 to 50 lbs. of 
milk per day. If the cows are pastured 
they would best be turned out to grass 
during the cool of the day, and only on 
such areas as provide an abundance of 
grass. 
Since you do not care to feed beet pulp 
it would be appropriate for you to in¬ 
crease the amount of silage, eay to 25 lbs. 
per day : but I should very much doubt 
the advisability of feeding more than this 
amount on account of its bulk and acid¬ 
ity. If more oilmeal can be included 
without causing undue laxativeness of 
the bowels it will be found that this in¬ 
gredient perhaps more than anything else 
will have a favorable effect, upon increas¬ 
ing the amount and the quality of the 
product. 
Charge for Boarding Cow 
What would be a fair charge for caring 
for a dry cow through the Winter 
months? Owner furnished hay and I fur¬ 
nished the grain, salt, pumpkins, roots 
and bedding. Of course we have the ma¬ 
nure. We gave her the same care we 
gave the others. Farmers here get $2 
per week for caring for a horse, feeding 
only hay. What should a cow’s board be 
worth? M. w. S. 
New York. 
The only fair way would be to charge 
against the cow the actual amount of hay 
and grain consumed, taking it for granted 
that the manure voided would pay well 
for the labor involved and the necessary 
bedding required for keeping her comfort¬ 
able. A cow of average size, one that will 
weigh say 1.000 lbs., will consume from 
10 to 15 lbs. of hay per day, and should 
be fed from 5 to 8 lbs. of grain per day, 
the latter depending upon her condition 
and degree of flesh. Figuring the hay at 
$30 a ton and the grain at $3 a hundred, 
and assuming that she consumes an aver¬ 
age of 15 lbs. of hay and 7 lbs. of grain, 
the actual cost of the hay and grain would 
amount to 43c per day, or approximately 
$13 per month : hence a charge ranging 
between $18 and $20 per mouth would be 
a reasonable one to apply. Surely one 
ought to obtain market prices for the 
farm products that he sells to the cow in 
the form of feed, and likewise he should 
be entitled to some profit in the transac¬ 
tion. 
Some weeks ago a subscriber questioned 
a suggested charge of $20 per month for 
providing feed and care for a dry cow. Of 
course if one undertakes to winter a cow, 
as often prevails, by denying her grain 
and letting her subsist largely on rough- 
age and cornstalks, the suggested figures 
would be unreasonable, but. if one feeds a 
dry cow a regular hay and grain ration, 
and you will note that, this does not pro¬ 
vide for such incidentals as salt, pump¬ 
kins and roots, which you state are sup¬ 
plied. I am sure that no reasonable party 
ought to object to paying this figure. 
There is another factor that should be 
considered, and that is that it costs pro¬ 
portionately more to care for and feed 
only one cow than it does to feed 10 or 20 
cows. If a farmer would actually take 
into account all of the grain and roughage 
that he supplies his cow. it is believed 
that this figure would be under rather 
than over in amount. You state that it is 
customary in your section to charge $2 
per week for caring for a horse. A charge 
$1 a day would be more nearly correct 
if one supplied the hay and grain and pur¬ 
chased it at the prevailing prices. If a 
horse is fed only hay, even though it be of 
a‘very poor quality, this would be worth 
it would seem, considerably more than $2 
a week. Oftentimes the profit from keep¬ 
ing boarders must be charged to experi¬ 
ence. It is my belief that experience must 
suffice as the only profit that would obtairj 
under such conditions. 
Ration with Pasture 
I have been feeding my cows a ration 
made up as follows: 100 lbs. gluten, TOO 
lbs. cottonseed meal. 100 lbs. cornmeal, 
100 lbs. middlings, 50 lbs. bran. They 
have had 4 lbs. per day. Until about two 
weeks ago I gave them a liberal quantity of 
mangels cut up and mixed with feed 
They have what Alfalfa hay they eat up 
clean. Have just turned them out on 
pasture for half day. They are giving 
about 200 lbs. of milk each, on average, 
for week. c. L. t. 
Long Island. 
Cows that have access to pasture can 
have their ration simplified and cheapened 
considerably as compared to that required 
when they are confined in stables or yards. 
If you continue the feeding of some 
Alfalfa hay, and this would be advan¬ 
tageous, the bran and middlings could be 
entirely eliminated, and equal parts of 
cornmeal and gluten should constitute the 
•uitire grain ration. This is assuming 
that-they have access to good pasture. If 
the picking is short, then the addition of 
some cottonseed meal would be helpful. 
The proportion should be 5 lbs. of corn¬ 
meal. 2 lbs. of gluten and 1 lb. of cotton¬ 
seed meal, and it should be fed in quan¬ 
tity according to production. In any 
event, a ration consisting of more than 
one-half of wheat bran would be unduly 
expensive and equally as extravagant and 
would not give you satisfactory results 
As to the quantity to feed of the above 
suggested ration, it # would depend, of 
course, upon production. I should feed 
a cow yielding 30 lbs. of milk per day 
from 5 to 7% lbs. of this mixture. Ordi¬ 
narily it is safe to gauge a pasture ration 
on 1 lb. of grain for each 5 lbs. of milk 
produced per day. 
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