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Show IT PAYS TO FEED COWS IN SUMMER Big Mistake to Overlook Grain in Dairy Ration. New York dairymen who do not feed grain to their milk cows In summer while they are on pasture nre overlooking over-looking a sure method of Increasing their net Income, says F. B. Morrison, head of the animal husbandry department depart-ment at Cornell university. It Is surprising, sur-prising, he sayst that many men who take much trouble In providing their cows with excellent rations during the barn feeding period of the year, depend de-pend blindly on Dume Nature In summer. sum-mer. Pasture alone was satisfactory for cows In early days, when even the best of them yielded an amount of milk we would now consider too low j for profit. By skillful selection and breeding, the modern high-yielding dairy cow has been developed, with a capacity for producing milk so great that any ordinary pasture will not furnish fur-nish her enough feed both for milk production and for body maintenance. The proper feeding of milk cows on pasture is much simpler than during the winter, and, says Professor Morrison, Morri-son, doubtless this is the reason why so many farmers, busy with their crops, fail to give their herd the necessary nec-essary attention In summer. Often the ! cows are merely turned to pasture after milking at night and morning, with no further thought as to the supply sup-ply of feed actually available for them. It is no wonder that when pasturage pas-turage becomes scanty in midsummer, the cows run down in flesh and fall off decidedly in milk yield. Even if fed liberally when bnrn-feeding starts in the fall, quife commonly they cannot can-not then be brought back to normal and usual production. " It is especially important to feed grain liberally when pastures become short and parched. This is important any year, and of particular Importance Impor-tance this summer, when every fur-sighted fur-sighted dairyman desires to do his share in providing sufficient milk in the New York milk shed during the shortage period next November. Under typical pasture conditions in the state, he says, experience shows that it is best to feed a grain mixture containing about 18 per cent protein, at the rate of one pound of grain to three pounds of Jersey and Guernsey milk.and one pound of grain to four pounds of Holstein, Ayrshire, or Shorthorn milk. |
