MANAGEMENT OF STOCK IN WINTER.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 114, 13 May 1876, Page 2

MANAGEMENT OF STOCK IN WINTER.

The time has now come for the farmer to look particularly to his means of making 1 his animals comfortable during the cold period. It ought to bo too welt settled, at this day, to require further mention, that no farmer can afford to keep Ins stock exposed to the weather eleven in stables with a small ventilator between each two hoards. He cannot afford to warm all out doors, or a cold stable, by burning food inside his animals for that purpose. But notwithstanding all the sermons and all the discussions at clubs, thousands will still feed their stock at a straw or hay stack, or put them in stables that only break the heavy force of the wind, leaving currents in general circulation. Does any: fanner think, if he stops to think about it at all, that it is cheaper to feed a cow on three-fourths of a ton of hay extra, to keep up animal heat, than to spend fifty' cents per animal to make his stable, warm. ,

; When a ■warm stable has been provided, then the condition may much .more easily, be kept up. But on no account must the animal be allowed to lose flesh. If young animals, they should be kept growing steadily through thewinter. Coarse fodder is necessary to the health of the ruminant, but it is not most profitable to winter entirely evenupon hay, especially where corn or other grain is raised.- : Brit whatever mode of feeding is adapted,i the animals should not be allowed to lose weight. Borne farmers seenv to think that cattle should be expected to lose two or three hundred pounds in wintering, in which case it takes half the summer to recover.- We believe a small amount of grain to be cheaper and more economical than to

feed all hay. The animal is capable of assimilating more food than it can digest of coarse fodder, and by feeding some concentrated food the animal will make ft greater growth in a given time which has much to do with the profit. Dairymen should keep up the condition of the cow through the season of going dry, for her extra condition when she conies in will he tlie bank to draw on for the extra production of milk. ‘ A cow that is poor at the commencement of the milking season cannot give a full flow of milk, as,she cannot digest food enough ■■■to supply her own system and to produce a large, flow of milk besides. A cow in good condition is worth 25 to 50 per cent, more at coming in than if in thin flesh. Nothing but loss can follow spare feeding. All the profit comes from full feeding. The horse breeder must remember that size is one most important point, and that much will depend upon winter management. The colt should always have a little grain the first winter, so as to keep constantly growing. In fact he needs it every winter till he gets his growth. The starving system or suspended growth should have no place in the plans of a good farmer.—‘Live Stock Journal.’