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Show FEEDING MILCH COWS. By Dr. David Roberta, Wisconsin State Veterinarian. Milch cows require different feed than beef cattle. You should not feed much fat forming foods as your cows would lay on fat instead of producing milk. Feed more silage or roots in the winter. Daily feed for a thousand-pound cow: 40 pounds of silage, 7 pounds clover hay, 8 pounds of grain. The cows that arc soon to freshen should be fed on succulent feed, such as silage sil-age or roots, bran, linsccd-mcal with a little oats. Keep the bowels open and do not feed very heavy on grain just before or after calving. After calving, give bran mashes and warm the drinking water for a few days. Allow the calf to suck for about two days and then feed the mothers milk from a pail for about two weeks, about three quarts twice a. day; after that reduce it with skim i Jhhhhmhmhhhi milk or warm water so that at the end of the fourth week the calf will be getting all skim milk or half whole milk and half warm water with some reliable stock tonic to aid digestion. Keep a supply of good clover or alfalfa al-falfa hay within reach and also some ground oats, with a little linseed meal mixed with it. After the calf cats the ground feed, gradually get him used to eating whole oats, as this is the best feed1 for him up to six months old. The heifers should not be bred until un-til fifteen or eighteen months old. |