EFFECTS OF GOOD FEED ON MILCH COWS.

Southland Times, Issue 613, 2 January 1867, Page 2

EFFECTS OF GOOD FEED ON MILCH COWS.

Our cows give fully one-third more butter this year than last, due solely to good feeding and warm quarters in the winter. They were cows I bought with the farm. They looked well, but proved to be poor milkers. They had been suffered to go dry about the Ist of November, under the impression that milking them in the winter would seriously injure them the coming summer. And I * have no doubt that there is considerable truth in this idea, provided the cows in the winter have nothing but cornstalks and straw, and are not stabled. But if they are fed liberally, they may be milked, * not only without injury, but with positive advantage. It favors the habit of secreting milk. Till within six weeks or two months of calving, a good cow, with, plenty of rich food, can give four or five quarts of milk per day, and will still be able to secure milk enough for the calf. She will eat and assimilate more food, and will get the habit of secreting more milk. I believe there is no better way of restoring the milking qualities of cows that have degenerated from poor management. I gave my cows three quarts each of corn meal a day, and an abundant supply of cornstalks and straw. " Instead of letting them go dry in November, I kept them stabled in cold weather, and they gave more milk or rather more butter, after we commenced to feed with grain in November and December, than they did in August and September. I milked some of them till within six weeks of calving. This is perhaps too much — ten weeks would be better. The cows, after we stopped milking, fleshed up rapidly, and many were the predictions that the corn meal would spoil the milk. But it did not. They gave more milk than ever before, and it is certainly very much richer. The prospects now are that for the year commencing the Ist of last November till the Ist of Next November, they will give as much again butter as they ever gave in a year before. So much, for good feeding in winter. We weigh every pound of butter made, and I feel confident that this opinion will prove correct. I have not yet fed with meal this summer, but shall do so the moment there is any indications of a falling-off in butter. In fact, should feed meal now if I had my buildings conveniently arranged for the purpose. I have not the slightest doubt that it would pay to give each cow two quarts of corn and pea meal a day. If twenty bushels of corn a year will double, or even add one third to the amount of butter and cheese made by a • cow, it is easy to figure whether it is profitable or not. Ido not say they will not eat as much grass and fodder if they were not fed with meal. The more food they will 'eat the better, provided it is turned into butter and cheese. — " Harris' " Walks and Talks."