Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 115, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1913 — TURNING THE DAIRY COW OUT TO PASTURE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TURNING THE DAIRY COW OUT TO PASTURE

By P. L. Roberts,

Department of Dairy Husbandry, Purdue University.

Purdue University Agricultural Extension.

All dairymen welcome the time when the cows can be turned out on pasture, for it is then that the largest and best results are expected from each animal and the labor and expense connected with winter feeding are done away with.

Pasture is a term which means various things. It may mean the old virgin fields which have been allowed to remain in native grasses from year to year without any attempt at improvement through cultivation or rotation of better forage plants, or, it may mean the more succulent and nutritious crops of alfalfa, cowpeas, clovers, soybeans, oats, rye, corn and other similar forage plants. The amount of forage produced by native grasses is very small and if the price of land is high, it is poor economy to allow the soil to lay idle, since by a proper system of rotation, the production of feed material can be increased from ten to one hundred times and thus Increase the economy in the production of the milk. Not only is the amount of forage increased, but it is in a better condition to be assimilated by the cow and turned into milk, because it is in a more active stage of growth, is more succulent than the native grasses, which begin to turn brown and dry up in the late summer and hence do not tend to keep up the flow of milk. As stated, a large variety of forage plants may be pastured, but the most nutritious of these and the most effective in making milk are the legumes, providing sufficient caution is exercised to prevent the bloating of the animals. In changing from the winter ration of dry feed to the succulent grass, great care must be exercised, especially in the case of heavy milking cows, not to make the change too abruptly. Tfie first periods of pasturing should be rather short, about one hour per day for the first few days, at the same time cutting down the roughage fed at milking time. About one week to ten days should be taken to make the complete change from dry feed to pasture. The young immature

grass, such as we have in the spring, contains a large amount of water and! a small amount of dry matter and it is almost' impossible for a heavy milking cow to eat enough of such feed to supply the nutrients necessary for her normal functions.

This same fact during th® entire pasturing season, to a certain degree and hence, the necessity of supplementing pasture with a grain ration. There is no question but that a cow will produce more milk if fed grain while on pasture, and, if a| larg® yield is of more importance than economy of production, grain should certainly be fed. The feeding of grain during the pasturing period enables the cown to store up a considerableamount of body nutrients which are available for her use in producing milk when the change back to the winter ration is necessary. Cows which are fed grain along with the pasture will go into the barn for winter feeding in better condition than cows having received pasture alone. Where only a small amount of grain is fed to the cow on pasture, corn is as well adapted as anything else where it is cheaper than other feeds, since, on account of the comparative narrow nutritive value of grass, the corn does not unbalance the ration. In the case of heavy milking where as much as five pounds or mor® of grain per day are required k to supplement the pasture, then feeds con. taining more protein should be used, such as bran, gluten meal, oats or cottonseed meal, in combination. Since as has been stated, the feeding of grain in connection with pasture is not the most economical method of producing milk, some successful dairymen have found it feasibl® and profitable to supplement the pasture with’ a feed of silage kt the tim® of milking. The addition of silagecompensates for any shortage in pas. ture and aids in maintaining a constant milk flow through the dry, hot months when pasture is naturallyshort and less nutritious.

Kentucky Blue Grass Forms an Ideal Ration for a Dairy Cow When Supplied in Abundance and of Good Quality.