In buying dairy stock the farmer generally finds it for his interest to select young heifers. They give the promise of longer usefulness. But it is often the case that older cows are selected with the design of using them for the dairy for a limited period, and then feeding them for the butcher. In either case, it is advisable, as a rule, to choose animals in low or medium condition. The farmer cannot ordinarily afford to buy fat; it is more properly his business to make it, and to have it to sell. Good and well-marked cows in poor condition will rapidly gain in flesh and products when removed to better pastures and higher keeping, and they cost less in the original purchase.
It is unnecessary to say that regard should be had to the quality of the pasturage and keeping which a cow has previously had, as compared with that to which she is to be subjected. The size of the animal should also be considered with reference to the fertility of the pastures into which she is to be put. Small or medium-sized animals accommodate themselves to ordinary pastures far better than large ones. Where a very large cow will do well, two small ones will usually do better, while the large animal might fail entirely where two small ones would do well. It is better to have the whole herd, so far as may be, uniform in size; for, if they vary greatly, some may get more than they need, and others will not have enough. This however, cannot always be brought about.
Fig. 55. A Good Dairy Cow.
CHAPTER IV.
FEEDING AND MANAGEMENT OF DAIRY COWS.
No branch of dairy farming can compare in importance with the management of cows. The highest success will depend very much upon it, whatever breed be selected, and whatever amount of care and attention be given to the points of the animals; for experience will show that very little milk comes out of the bag that is not first put into the throat. It is poor economy, therefore, to attempt to keep too many cows for the amount of feed we have; for it will generally be found that one good cow well bred and well fed will yield as much as two ordinary cows kept in the ordinary way, while a saving is effected both in labor and room required, and in the risks on the capital invested. If the larger number on poorer feed is urged for the sake of the manure, which is the only ground on which it can be put, it is sufficient to remark that it is a very expensive way of making manure. It is not too much to say that a proper regard to profit and economy would require many an American farmer to sell off nearly half his cows, and to feed the whole of his hay and roots hitherto used into the remainder.
A certain German farmer was visited, one day, by some Swiss from over the border, who desired to buy of him all the milk of his cows for the purpose of making cheese. Not being able to agree upon the terms, he finally proposed to let them take the entire charge of his cows, and agreed to furnish food amply sufficient, the Swiss assuming the whole care of feeding it out, and paying a fixed price by measure for all the milk. “I found myself, at once,” says he, “under the necessity of selling almost half my cows, because the Swiss required nearly double the quantity of fodder which the cows had previously had, and I was well satisfied that all the produce I could raise on my farm would be far from sufficient to feed in that way the number of cows I had kept. I was in despair at finding them using such a quantity of the best quality of feed, though it was according to the strict letter of the contract, especially as I knew that I had given my cows rather more than the quantity of food recommended by men in whom I had perfect confidence. Thus, while Thaër names twenty-three pounds of hay, or its equivalent, as food sufficient for a good-sized cow, I gave mine full twenty-seven pounds. But, if the change effected in the management of my cows was great, the result was still more striking. The quantity of milk kept increasing, and it reached the highest point when the cows attained the condition of the fat kine of Pharaoh’s dream. The quantity of milk became double, triple, and even quadruple, what it had been before; so that, if I should compare the product with that previously obtained, a hundred pounds of hay produced three times more milk than it had produced with my old mode of feeding. Such results, of course, attracted my attention to this branch of my farming. It became a matter of pleasure; and my observations were followed up with great care, and during several years I devoted a large part of my time to it. I even went so far as to procure scales for weighing the food and the animals, in order to establish exact data on the most positive basis.”
The conclusions to which he arrived were, that an animal, to be fully fed and satisfied, requires a quantity of food in proportion to its live weight; that no feed could be complete that did not contain a sufficient amount of nutritive elements; hay, for example, being more nutritive than straw, and grains than roots. He found, too, that the food must possess a bulk sufficient to fill up to a certain degree the organs of digestion or the stomach; and that, to receive the full benefit of its food, the animal must be wholly satisfied, as, if the stomach is not sufficiently distended, the food cannot be properly digested, and of course many of the nutritive principles it contains would not be perfectly assimilated. An animal regularly fed eats till it is satisfied, and no more than is requisite. A part of the nutritive elements in hay and other forage plants is needed to keep an animal on its feet,—that is, to keep up its condition,—and if the nutrition of its food is not sufficient for this the weight decreases, and if it is more than sufficient the weight increases, or else this excess is consumed in the production of milk or in labor. About one sixtieth of their live weight in hay, or its equivalent, will keep horned cattle on their feet; but, in order to be completely nourished, they require about one thirtieth in dry substances, and four thirtieths in water, or other liquid contained in their food. The excess of nutritive food over and above what is required to sustain life will go in milch cows generally to the production of milk, or to the growth of the fœtus, but not in all cows to an equal extent; the tendency to the secretion of milk being far more developed in some than in others.
With regard to the consumption of food in proportion to the live weight of the animal, however far it may apply as a general principle, it should, I think, be taken with some qualifications. The proportion is probably not uniform as applied to all breeds indiscriminately, though it may be more so as applied to animals of the same breed. Bakewell’s idea was that the quantity of food required depended much on the shape of the barrel; and it is well known that an animal of a close, compact, well-rounded barrel will consume less than one of an opposite make.