Show cac RATION COW NEEDS DURING MILK PERIOD matter of high importance in milli milk production it has been demonstrated repeatedly that it does not pay to have A dairy cow freshen in tow low condition slie she may produce less than 70 per cent as much milk as she would pro avee had she freshened in good condition this fact has led dalry dairymen men to say eay that their most profitable feeding Is done during the dry period the cows own physical condition la in one of the alie best guides to the amount of feed needed during the dry period if in good lesh flesh she will carry along all right on legume hay bay and silage or pasture and a small amount of feed the ration should be light and laxative if you have a good quality of legume tiny liny a ration made up largely of corn and oats or barley and oats will be satisfactory A mixture for a ration might contain pounds of corn or corn and coh cob meal pounds of oats pounds of wheat pounds of wheat bran pounds of linseed meal or soybean oll meal where only poor roughage such as timothy hay oat straw or corn fodder Is available it Is advisable to increase the oil meal or soybean by 50 per cent it Is especially important to take good care of the cow at calving time confine her to a good clean box stall about a week before freshening change the ration so that it Is very light and laxative this may mean withholding corn and feeding only oats wheat bran and permit the cow to take exercise in a pasture or in the yard soon after tb the e calf Is dropped the cow should he be tied up in this way the dairyman will observe whether or not the afterbirth Is delivered if the afterbirth Is not delivered nornia normally lly find and within twelve or twenty four hours the tha cow may inay need some medical attention wisconsin former farmer pay to neglect early freshening cow the cow that freshens in the early tall fall Is apt to have a hard time of it she comes into production at a time when the former farmer Is rustling rushing around with silo filling and late thresh ings followed by fall plow and root harvest there Is a very natural tendency to get through with as aa little chores as possible and cows are usually bred to come in after the rush Is over if 11 a cow does freshen she inkes the same treatment as the rest of the herd As a matter of fact she Is usually considered a nuisance but tills this Is the time when milk comes easiest and a cow responds most profitably to extra feed and care the fresh cow now should get a proper grain ration fed in proportion to production she should not be out at night when the at gats get frosty it if she Is milking in excess of GO lbs ibs milk dally daily she will respond profitable table to three tames a day milking Dg if she la Is not properly fed difed and regularly milked she will be a poorer cow right through the lactation period wheat in dairy ration wheat proved a dietter h etter grain than corn in a ration for milk cows in an experiment conducted recently at the experiment station in ij view of the bumper crop of this grain in ohio this year these results are of Interest to ohio dairymen who are looking to feeding wheat this winter the grain ration for these cows consisted of three parts wheat three parts oats and one part ench each of corn bran and linseed meal which was fed along with silage and hay in comparison with cows fed this ration except that corn replaced wheat these cows produced more milk and butterfat but the cows on corn gained a little more in weight four cows on the wheat ration averaged 50 pounds of butterfat butterf nt a month while those on corn averaged 48 pounds ohio farmer |