FOOD FOR DAIRY CATTLE.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1573, 3 August 1882, Page 2

FOOD FOR DA IR Y CA TTLE.

Cattle food has been the subject of a great deal of discussion, and much light has been thrown upon it, but there arc very many important points yet unsettled, which science and practical observation are striving unitedly to solve. When they agree upon any point it may be considered settled. It is curious to note their points of agreement and divergence, and the pi ogress they respectively make. Science would move or rest on rigid logic. Practical men, struggling with hard labour and limited means, are keenly alive to every opening for loss or gain, and are controlled by these lesults, and though they sometimes form opinions wide of the mark and prejudicial to their own welfare, it is interesting to see how very often their experience and intelligent observation lead them to uniform and sound conclusions, even in advance of science. Ask a hundred dairymen what is the best food for cows in milk, and with one accord they will all answer " grass," which means young grass as it is grazed from the tuif. With this answer science accords, and we consider it settled. "Nothing excites &uch a liberal secretion of delicious milk as grass. Nothing better contributes to the health and general welfare of the herd than to roani free in the open air upon clean pastures, eating and drinking, moving and resting when they will. More food and more milk may perhaps be obtained from a given area of ground by some other way than by grazing, but nothing can surpass grabs in the excellence of its pioducts, ami on lands of moderate price the almost uinvoisal practice of dairy men aiguos that it is, all things considered, the cheapest as well as the best. In considering food for the dairy, we shall assume that for all ordinary cases giass ought to be used as long as it can be obtained, and when no longer available, then such food as comes nearest to ic. We will begin with grass in the spiing, and follow tluough the year to grass again. It is the jn'&ctiee of some to keep then 1 cows yarded, and not allowed to taste grass till it is grown high enough for them to fill them selves readily, and to subsist on it entirely. Others allow them the range of the pasture, or a part of it, and let them change gradually from hay to grass as the latter comes slowly forward. There are advantages and disadvantages in both these practices. 'It may 'be tirged \ on one side that feed will hold out better to keep the held from it till there is a '•full bite," and that by tastiiig l grass cows lose their appetite for'hay aud will nol eat enough to keep up their flesh and strength, all of which is true. On the other side, it may be said that it is better for cows, or any other stock, to change gradually from dry teed to green, and that the season lor dry food, always too long, is stretched to its utmost by shutting cows from the early grass, which is also true. A sudden and radical change of food for either man or beast is always attended with ill consequences. The condition ot the stomach aud bowels and the quality of the gastric juices, adapt themselves to the nature of the food used. To break up an established order ot things deranges all the operations of the sy&tem and impairs its functions. In turning cows suddenly aud wholly upon grass, they are usually made sick for several days, and their milk is so much affected as to work badly in the cheese- vat for a week or more. Diarrhoea sets in, they become weak, and the loss of flesh by scouring is often greater than that occasioned by a loss of appetite for hay. It is the general practice with the best dairymen to give their cows early the range of at least a part of their pasture, and it has I always been found better, taking the season thiough, to make the change from hay to grass a gradual one, and to prevent any tendeucy to falling away by extra feed. There is also the advantage in turning out early, of having the first tufts of grass eaten off and utilising the space they occupy, instead of leaving them unused to cumber j the ground during the whole season. If ! from scanty pasturing or any other cause, • a dairyman determines to shut his cows entirely from grass till feed is abundant, ho may abate the ill effects of a too long season of , foddering, and prepare his cows for diet' of grass, by feeding some kinds of green food — as> beets, carrots, mangolds, pumpkins, or pptatocs. By baiting tlie herd an hour or so at a time each day for a few days, and by closing up the foddering season wifcli 1 early cut hay aud some green food,' the'eows may be so well prepared for grass that ,they will not be much affected by the 1 change, though they may not be turned out till quite late ; but a small quantity of good hay will be relished by cows a long time after they have been tinned to grass, and it should be fed as long as they will eat it, for it will keep them from scouring and promote a healthy digestion. Salt ought at all times to enter into the food of the dairy cow. In this country it seems to me to be an article too little thought of, as an ingredient m cattle food. In America, Victoiia, and New South Wales dairymen would not be without it. It should be kept whore cow s can partake of it ad libitum. Salt enters largely into the mineral elements of the milk, and as these elements are in scanty proportion in young grass, it is most needed in the early part ot the summer. Both the quantity and the quality of milk are considerably affected by witholding salt till the cows get hungry for it. Cows in the season of lactation require more salt than at other times, and those that give the most milk require the most of it. In some experiments in Victoria I 'found that by letting the cows go without salt one week they fell off in their milk four per cent in quantity, and fourteen per cent in quality, making a loss of eighteen per cent on the cheese which was at once restored by supplying salt agaiu. While cows are at grass, salt should be given every day, and in the midsummer it ought to be given twice a day. It is not believed to be the best plan to depend entirely on grazing through the whole season. To do this, it would be necessary to reduce the stock so low as to have a large surplus of feed in November aud December, otherwise there would be a deficiency in midsummer. Grass that gets very much ahead of the stock is liable to waste by tramping down, and to lose its" value by becoming dry and woody. It may be said of the long leaved grasses, the older they are the poorer the butter and cheese made from them. This remark will not, however, apply to all forage plants. But it is desirable to make the grazing season as long as we can, and it may be prolonged by sowing different varieties of grass the mixture including" suclx as - will come forward in regular succession. - The length of the grazing season will depend very m,uch on the character of the soilwhether it is dry br moist; It is desir- ' able to have the pasture, or part of it at ' last, located on loamy soil thai-will retain moisture^ and keep the feed green. It is thought %o~ pay; best- teT v stock-, so »s , not to have a large surplus, of feed at the} approach of the, d^ry v season, -jaiidjbo > Carry ; the- herd through the.drotight, parfclyuon* 'meiCaqUing^that.'Uf cqntifling^-ther co^re^in/, ?tHe^K^|Lq^

necessary in order to obtain the best results from the system, which has many practical advantages to recommend it to the notice of the dairyman. For soiling, fodder corn is a good thing to use. There is much diversity of opinion in regard to the fitness of sowed corn for soiling; some dairymen regard it as nearly worthless, while others prize it highly. It has certainly given very different results on different farms. But this difference is not the fault of the corn, nor of the farms on which it is grown It is due to the faulty manner of growing and feeding it. Those who have condemned it have fed it too young, or have sown it so thick that its aliment was not developed. When- too thickly planted its stems and leaves are soft and pale, its juices thin and poor, and the effect is a growth somewhat like a potato-vine in a cellar. If sown thin, or in drills, so that air, light, and the heat of the sun dan reach it, and not fed till nearly its full size, it is a valuable soiling plant, and is fed with good results Again, fodder corn when fed as it comes from the field, fresh and green, contains too much water too produce the best results. Cows will relish it better, eat more of it, and give more and richer milk if it is wilted and partially dried before feeding. Botanicafly, corn and grass belong to the same family of plants. Physiologically, corn and grass are quite different. The greatest percentage of cheesy matter and butter appear in the earliest stages of the growth of grass; they are then most highly coloured and most aromatic. Steadily, as the grass plant grows in height and age to prepare for seed-bearing, the percentage of these valuable properties begins to diminish, and the colour to grow paler ; the starch, sugar and gum prepare for, and begin to change into woody fibre, and the aroma steadily wastes away. In the growth of corn it is different. Its valuable properties — its casein, butter, sugar and aroma — deficient at first, steadily improve in quality and increase in per centage till the flowering begins, and it is well not to feed it much before that time. Horace Walpole. Te Awamutu. Tq ho continued,