THE FEEDING OF DAIRY COWS.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 22, 30 June 1911, Page 4

THE FEEDING OF DAIRY COWS.

SOME OBSERVATIONS. When Mr J. Drysdale (who was in charge of the Weraroa State farm) was in Australia recently, he had an opportunity of studying Australian methods of feeding dairy cows, and of making comparisons of them with the methods in use/ in New Zealand. In the current number of the Agricultural Journal Mr Drysdale gives the result. The fi/pst thing to attract his attention on Commonwealth dairy farms was that increasing attention was being given to the making of silage, farmers being given every encouragement by the Victorian, New South Wales, and Queensland Governments to adopt this principle of food conservation. He says : “ Silage is certainly a most important factor in successful dairying operations on the other side. Farmers are realising this fact. They are passing beyond the stacking stage, and are largely employing the American method of chaffing material and preserving it in stave silos, which are filled by means of a blower attached to the chaff cutter. This style is found to be cheaper and more convenient in the end. A larger amount of succulent feeding material can thus be stored away. The silo is necessary in Australia because of climatic conditions, which generally mean an abnormal growth of grass and fodder plants at certain seasons of the year and more or less long intervening dry spells. Thus it is only through silage that milking stock can be provided with the necessary succulent food for any lengthened period. In this country it is rather different. Here green crops can be grown in . practically any summer, and thus, under a properscheme of management, ideal milk-forming foods are available at all times.

" la no case," Mr Drysdale continues, " did I see root crops grOwn for dairy stock, which have to depend on the natural grasses supplemented by silage and hay. In some cases Australian dairy farmers are taking a leaf out of New Zealand's book, and are growing maize for feeding in a green state, but this is only hi favoured localities. Paspalum is the dominant grass in the great north coast dairy country, and in the peculiar moist environment it flourishes in an amazing manner. It is hardly probable, however, that it can give the same feeding value as a pasturage of English grasses. I noticed that the paspalum in the autumn caused considerable trouble by reason of the seed stalks getting into the nostrils of the cattle. A whole herd would be seen to be breathing very heavily, as though the cows were affected with tuberculosis. The seed gets right into the nostrils, causing irritation and subsequent inflammation, and thereby necessitating the animal breathing through the mouth. In many cases the farmers have a peculiarshaped hook made for the purpose of taking out the seed. " There are sections here and there in New South Wales and Victoria where ideal dairying country is to be found ; but 'this advantage is largely counterbalanced by the periodic droughts, or more or less frequent spells of dry weather. In the south coast district of New South Wales, long famed as a dairying country, dairy farms have changed hands at £4O an acre and over; and the land is worth it, especially as the district is connected with the capital both by rail and water. Generally speaking, however, the milkyielding value of Australian dairy cattle food is not equal to that of this country. In favoured months it may be, but it is the year's experience that has to be considered, and it is here where the New Zealand milk-producer has the advantage."