American Agriculturist, October 6,1923 
229 
A Year’s Dairy Lessons 
Some Things I Would and Would Not Do Again 
W E are supposed to 
live and learn. 
Sometimes, as far as the latter is con¬ 
cerned, it is necessary “to set up a 
strike” to note our progress. However, 
one cannot buy the feed for and super¬ 
intend the care of 150 dairy cows for 
a year without drawing some conclu¬ 
sions. These I am going to set down 
in a sort of summary form; doing this 
will help to clarify my own thinking 
and perhaps pass on something of bene¬ 
fit to American Agriculturist readers. 
If we have learned anything dur¬ 
ing the past year it is to appreciate 
good roughage more than ever. Al¬ 
falfa, clover, and early cut timothy 
are absolutely necessary to the cheap 
production of milk. 
In previous articles I have told how, 
after we had a cow or group of cows 
at the highest point, we could force 
them with a grain feed we could raise 
or lower their production immediately 
by varying the quality of the roughage 
fed. 
In our A. R. testing we have de¬ 
pended more on good roughage and reg¬ 
ular care than we have on grain. 
Our grandfathers used to cure hay 
in the cock. With the introduction of 
machinery and the increased cost of 
labor we have been becoming more 
and more careless in our haymaking. 
Last summer Dr. McCollum of Johns 
Hopkins University told me—and I be¬ 
lieve Professor Savage agrees—that 
hay which is well cured away from 
direct sunlight so it retains its green 
color and which does not mow-burn, 
contains valuable elements which ordi¬ 
narily cured hay loses. 
During the past year we have tested 
this out a bit and for some reason or 
other than having less breeding trou¬ 
bles with our cows than ever before. 
For years we have wanted to grow 
alfalfa and more clover. No one of us 
but has had the disheartening experi¬ 
ence of securing a fine stand of alfalfa 
or clover and then having it winter-kill. 
The most valua’Te contribution to ag¬ 
riculture made during my time, I be¬ 
lieve, has been the discovery by the 
New York State College of Agriculture 
through practical field tests of the ne¬ 
cessity of usihg northern grown alfalfa 
and clover seed in practically all sec¬ 
tions of the State in order to secure 
crops of these legumes that will live 
through our severe winters. 
With this discovery, and with the 
subsequent introduction of this seed on 
a commercial scale, has come a great 
improvement in the' hay crop of the 
State as far as the needs of dairy cat¬ 
tle are concerned. 
In our own experience in buying and 
feeding grain the past year has taught 
us some valuable lessons. Formerly, 
like many dairymen, we depended upon 
the protein analysis to measure the 
value of a grain ration. To-day we are 
buying our grain with little regard for 
the protein content, provided it is some¬ 
where between 16 and 20 per cent, but 
with the utmost care to know the di¬ 
gestible nutrients the ration contains. 
Any ration containing less than 1,400 
pounds of digestible nutrients has no 
place on a dairy farm; 
yet thousands of tons 
of such rations are sold that will not 
carry much over 1,250 pounds of di¬ 
gestible nutrients per ton. 
Both in our regular dairy and in our 
A. R. testing we have ample proof of 
the fact that a ration with not over 16 
per cent protein, but which is at least 
four-fifths digestible, will make more 
milk and keep our cows in better con¬ 
dition than many rations analyzing- 
higher in protein. 
I wish I could get the message to 
every man who buys dairy feeds — and 
had the time to support it with our 
records—that buying protein without 
regard for digestible nutrients is caus¬ 
ing dairymen to lose millions of dollars 
each year. 
I do not want to go on record as say¬ 
ing that the silo has been overem¬ 
phasized. Thei’e is a place for one on 
every dairy farm. I am convinced, 
however, that silage as a food for 
dairy cattle has its distinct limitations, 
and I am not sure but what the teach¬ 
ing of recent years, that we should 
put as much digestible dry matter in 
the s : lo as possible, has been somewhat 
misleading. • 
Of one thing I am sure. That is, 
if we have plenty of good alfal+'a and 
clover hay, or very early cut timothy 
and wild grass and a highly digestible 
grain ration, the chief value of silage 
lies in its succulence. In fact, with 
our A. R. cows, we soon found that 
there was a limit beyond which we 
could not go in feeding silage with¬ 
out impairing production. 
This limit, as I recall it, was about 
a peck of silage per cow per day, a 
surprisingly small amount compared 
with the standard of feeding on the 
ordinary dairy farm. 
Within the next few months we will 
finish a dozen A. R. records on pure¬ 
bred Guernseys. We have learned that 
it costs real money to make A. R. rec¬ 
ords on pure-bred cattle. It remains 
to be seen whether or not it will pay 
us. Personally T am of the opinion 
that there is a good deal of bunk in 
the proposition. Some man makes a 
high advanced registry record on ah 
unusually fine animal and sells her for 
a fancy price. From then on his ex¬ 
perience is pointed to as an example 
for young men to follow. 
Nothing is ever said of the hundreds 
of medhere records that are made, of 
the high record cow- which lack in¬ 
dividuality, and of the hundreds of 
cows which have their usefulness 
mined by forcing or poor feeding dur¬ 
ing the test period. 
Size, individuality, health—these, I 
hebeve, are even more important than 
records. A large cow that is healthy 
and possesses the individuality cannot 
help but give milk if she is well cared 
for. There is room and a good mar¬ 
ket at fair prices for thousands of 
such animals. Perhaps it would be 
well, as we look into the future, to 
plan on raising more of them and to 
think less of the occasional individual 
we hope to own some day that will 
break the world’s record. 
By H. E. BABCOCK 
One of the features of National Dairy Show Week, will be a dedication 
of the new dairy building at the New York State College of Agriculture 
at Ithaca. The picture shows the building as it now appears—a structure 
in keeping with New York’s greatest farm industry. The dedication ex¬ 
ercises will take place on Saturday, October 13 and will be attended by 
leading dairymep from all parts of the United States as well as foreign 
countries, who will be in attendance at the show in Syracuse 
FROM A KODAK NEGATIVE MADE ON THE FARM 
Autographic Kodak 
G OOD pictures, easily made, and com¬ 
plete even to date and title written on 
the film at the time by means of the ex¬ 
clusively Eastman autographic feature — 
that’s the Kodak way. 
You’ll want such pictures of live stock, crops, 
equipment, buildings, for reference and year-to-year 
comparison; you’ll point to them proudly in your 
Kodak album when they are made just for fun, like 
the illustration above. 
% 
Autographic Kodaks $6.50 up 
Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N. Y. 
350 to 400 pounds 
of Milk from every 
10 011)5. BOIL BRAND 
—is so commonly the experience of Bull Brand 
users everywhere that We guarantee these results I 
And in addition, J»e guarantee more milk from each cow. 
Only the choicest ingredients and the most careful 
milling can /nake a feed with these exceptional 
milk producing qualities! 
OUR GUARANTEE 
Feed three or more cows on 
BULL BRAND DAIRY RATION 
in accordance with our direc¬ 
tions. If the results do not 
prove satisfactory to you, upon 
application to us or any of our 
dealers the money paid for the 
feed used will be refunded. 
D/ftw s a Me 
BULL BRADD Dealer 
in eferu Me tovtn! 
Remember, it isn’t the price of 100 pounds of feed 
that counts---! - /’.* the cost of making 100 poundswf 
milk! 
And even though Bull Brand should cost a great 
deal more than it does—the results obtained will 
justify our claim that 
Bull Brand Dairy 
Ration is the most 
economical feed on 
the market today. 
MARITIME MILLING CO., 
Incorporated 
Chamber of Commerce 
BUFFALO, N. Y. 
