Keeping one cow: Being the experience of a number of practical writers, in a clear and condensed form, upon the management of a single milch cowVarious
Science
Keeping one cow: Being the experience of a number of practical writers, in a clear and condensed form, upon the management of a single milch cow
Various
Cows; Dairying
The why and the wherefore of this system of feeding, which we heartily
advocate, are well told in the words of Mr. Ellsworth, the originator.
“The idea that a cow needs only two meals a day during the winter season,
as long as she is kept upon hay or other dried fodder, notwithstanding
the fact that she will eat much oftener, when obtaining her living from
the pasture, may appear to the casual observer, to be contradictory to
itself; but on a closer investigation we shall notice a rational, and I
believe satisfactory reason for it. Of all the elements of which grass is
composed, by far the larger part is water, which must render it much more
bulky than an equal amount of hay, and for this reason, more is required
to supply the wants of the system. During the season, therefore, when the
cow must live by her own exertions, she must labor most of the time to
obtain the requisite amount of nourishment, which she is not required to
do while in the barn. We must not forget, also, that pastures in general
are kept down so close during the greater part of the summer, that only
by continual labor can her wants be satisfied.”
The same rules are applicable to the soiling of the cow during the summer
months, the only difference being that green food is given in the place
of dry. This may consist of rye, oats, barley, millet, or Hungarian
grass, corn, English grass, etc., cut while in the milk. It will
frequently be found that a proportion of dried hay will also at times be
highly relished, and may be essential to allay any excessive looseness of
the bowels, which may be produced by the succulent food.
During the time of eating, the milking and other necessary work may be
done about the cow house, so that time may be thus economized.
As to the requisite amount of food, it may be taken as a safe rule,
that a milch cow demands in food, three per cent of her weight. An
average cow, then, will require from eighteen to twenty pounds of hay,
in addition to a peck or two of roots per day, or the equivalent of this
amount in green food during the summer months.
If the hay is good, and has been properly cured, or if rowen can be
given, then there will be little or no demand for grain in any form. If
otherwise, from one to two quarts of Indian meal, with two quarts of
shorts per day, should be fed out, if we are to expect a good flow of
milk. We have found excellent results to follow the practice of stirring
the meal and shorts, or a portion of these, into a bucket of warm water,
and offering this mixture immediately after the animal has consumed her
dry food, and before any roots are eaten. This extra amount of fluid will
be greedily taken, in this way, without any interference with a liberal
supply of water at the end of the meal. Salt, at all times, should be
accessible to the cow, and perhaps this article may be best supplied by
placing a large lump of rock salt in the manger, to be licked as her
wants may require.
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