Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 139, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1915 — PASTURES TO SUSTAIN EVEN MILK FLOW [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PASTURES TO SUSTAIN EVEN MILK FLOW

(By W. M. KELLY.)

The time when dairy cattle can 4 be turned out in the summer to shift for themselves has passed. Under the best conditions, the abundance of pasture grass is certain to decrease after the middle of July, and its quality also deteriorates. To sustain an even flow of milk we must be prepared to supply additional food. A milk flow, allowed to decrease at this time, cannot be fully regained until the cow again freshens. The cow that is giving milk, and the growing heifer, suffer a severe shock, from which they are slow to recover if compelled to fight flies and exist on semistarvation rations, in a drought-stricken pasture. Many dairy farmers make the mistake of allowing the cows to shrink in their flow of milk, before beginning to feed the supplemental feeds. Supplying these as soon as the pasture begins to fail, makes the change more gradual and insures an even, steady thrift of the cows, which is so essential ( to sustaining a large flow of milk. Another very common mistake made by many dairy farmers is that of feeding a heavy grain ration to the cows when a bare pasture is their sole supply of rough food. Such roughage is neither palatable nor abundant enough to produce good results. On the modern dairy farm where corn, clover and alfalfa thrive, it is unnecessary to plan an extensive and complicated system of forage crops to supplement the pastures. The supply may be obtained by holding over ensilage or by cutting clover and alfalfa, and feeding them green in liberal quantities. Oats, peas, rye, barley and various ether crops, may be specially grown for summer feeds, but none of these crops will yield as much food as corn, clover, alfalfa and oats and peas that are raised in the regular crop rotation. The only real advantage of growing the former feeds lies in the fact that they may be sometimes raised on land not used for growing the crops in the regular rotation. I believe it is generally unwise to practice a complicated system of growing catch crops, when it is possible to obtain equally good results from the green feed supplied by the regular field crops. In actual practice I have depended chiefly upon corn, oats and clover and

peas for soiling purposes during toe summer, harvesting as much of each crop green as was necessary to balance up the deficiency of pasture grass.' ' / The corn ensilage has the advantage of being at hand in case the drought comes unusually early in the season, when it is difficult to get soiling crops to growing heavily enough. Corn is both the best grain and toiling crop. This fact has been a stumbling block to many farmers. In trying to save grain and ensilage for winter feeding they have allowed many dollars to slip through their hands by underfeeding in the summer. The same holds good when clover and alfalfa are saved for hay, when the cattle are suffering- for succulent food. In no way can we realize greater feeding value from these crops than by cutting and feeding them green. • It is the height of folly to save clover and alfalfa for hay and allow it to lose feeding value from rain and heat before feeding it to the cows, if they are suffering in a parched pasture for want of this kind of food. It is common to see a herd of dairy cattle in the late summer stamping dust from a dried-up pasture, fighting flies, and vainly endeavoring to break through a fence which holds them out of a luxuriant field of corn that flaunts its prodigious wealth of dark green foliage before them. It is a penny wise and pound foolish policy to allow cows to fall away in the milk yield and condition, when a few rows of rankly growing corn would keep them in good condition. It is true that when corn is cut green it has less feeding value than when it is mature, but the ripened stalk and leaves are largely wasted as, much of the crop is harvested. When cut and fed green there is scarcely any waste, for the whole stalk, leaves and grain are eaten. While corn in its roastlng-ear stage has less total nourishment than the whole plant when matured, yet when cut at this time it will actually give better results than when husked from the standing stalk and fed later after the cattle have fallen away in their milk yield and flesh condition. More than one-half of the run-down condition of dairy cattle during the winter can be traced -to a decline in condition before they go into winter quarters in the fall.

Field of Red Top and Timothy at New Jersey Experiment Station.