Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1917 — RATIONS FOR COWS IN WINTER SEASON [ARTICLE]

RATIONS FOR COWS IN WINTER SEASON

Size of Animal, Quantity of Milk She Produces, and Kind of Feed Are Essentials. In feeding cows three things must be considered, the size of the cow, the ’ quantity of milk she produces, and the kind of feed given. • Ordinarily a large cow requires more feed than a small one. Topfoduce 30 pounds of milk a cow may nbt require twice as much feed as to produce 15, but she will nevertheless require a substantial increase. Some feeds are rich in milk-producing materials while oth-

ers arepoor. When a cow is fed the former class, she will not require as many pounds as if she were fed the latter. : ’ Ten pounds of . clover hay, 80 pounds of corn silage, 10 pounds of grain—oats and corn equal parts —make a good ration, both in quantity and kind for a cow weighing 1,000 pounds and giving 30 pounds of milk daily. This may be considered an average ration for an average good, dairy cow during the first six months of her lactation period, provided she freshens in the fall. It is the kind that is fed on an average good dairy farm. With a ration as mentioned above, the average cow will, require one pound of hay and three pounds of silage for every one hundred poundg of her weight. Thus a cow weighing 700 pounds would require seven pounds of hay, and 21 pounds of silage a day, while one weighing 1,500 pounds—an unusual weight—would require 15 pounds of hay and 45 pounds of silage. The amount of grain might remain the same provided 30 pounds of milk were given in each case. —~ With wild timothy hay or bad clover hay and a bundle of corn fodder instead of the silage, we have a different problem. Such hay is low in protein and a cow must eat considerably more of this to get the required amount of milk-making material. In the case of fodder corn, there is usually 30 or 40 per cent of the stock left uneaten. ’This is not the case with silage, so a large quantity of the former would have to -be given. Where there is no clover or alfalfa more grain should be fed and to produce a wellbalanced ration oil cake or cottonseed meal must also be given.