The most natural, and of course the healthiest food for milch cows in summer, is the green grass of the pastures; and when those fail from drought, or over-stocking, the complement of nourishment may be made up with green clover, green oats, barley, millet, or corn-fodder, and cabbage-leaves, or other succulent vegetables; and if these are wanting, their place may be partly supplied with shorts, Indian-meal, linseed or cotton-seed meal. Green grass is more nutritious than hay, which always loses more or less of its nutritive qualities in curing; the amount of the loss depending chiefly on the mode of curing, and the length of exposure to sun and rain. But, apart from this, grass is more easily and completely digested than hay, though the digestion of hay may be greatly aided by cutting and moistening, or steaming; and by this means it is rendered more readily available, and hence far better adapted to promote a large secretion of milk—a fact too often overlooked by many even intelligent farmers.
That green grass is better adapted than most other kinds of food to promote a large flow of milk, may be seen from the following table, from which it will appear that greater attention should be given to the proper constituents of food for milch cows. Two cows were taken in the experiment.
| Food of two cows. | Milk in five days. | Butter in five days. | Nitrogen in food in five days. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Grass, | 114 | lbs. | 3.50 | lbs. | 2.32 | lbs. |
| 2. | Barley and hay, | 107 | 3.43 | 3.89 | |||
| 3. | Malt and hay, | 102 | 3.20 | 3.34 | |||
| 4. | Barley, molasses, and hay, | 106 | 3.44 | 3.82 | |||
| 5. | Barley, linseed, and hay, | 108 | 3.48 | 4.14 | |||
| 6. | Beans and hay, | 108 | 3.72 | 5.27 | |||
Here grass produced the largest flow of milk, but of a quality less rich than bean-meal and hay, which produced the richest quality; one hundred and eight pounds making more butter than one hundred and fourteen pounds of grass-made milk.
In autumn, the best feed will be the grasses of the pastures, so far as they are available, green-corn fodder, cabbage, carrot and turnip leaves, and an addition of meal or shorts. Towards the middle of autumn, the cows fed in the pastures will require to be housed regularly nights, especially in the more northern latitudes, and put, in part at least, upon hay. But every farmer knows that it is not judicious to feed out the best part of his hay when his cattle are first put into the barn, and that he should not feed so well in the early part of winter that he cannot feed better as it advances.
At the same time, it should always be borne in mind that the change from grass to a poor quality of hay or straw, for cows in milk, should not be too sudden. A poor quality of dry hay is far less palatable in the early part of winter, after the cows are taken from grass, than at a later period; and, if it is resorted to with milch cows, will inevitably lead to a falling off in the milk, which no good feed can afterwards wholly restore.
It is desirable, therefore, to know what can be used instead of his best English or upland meadow hay, and yet not suffer any greater loss in the flow of milk, or condition, than is absolutely necessary. In some sections of New England, the best quality of swale hay will be used; and the composition of that is as variable as possible, depending on the varieties of grasses of which it was made, and the manner of curing. But, in other sections, many will find it necessary to use straw, and other substitutes; and it may be desirable to know how much is required to form an equivalent in nutrition to good meadow or English hay. The following brief table of nutritive equivalents will be convenient for reference:
| Nutritive equivalent. | Percentage of Nitrogen. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dried. | Undried. | |||
| 1. | Meadow hay, | 100 | 1.34 | 1.15 |
| 2. | Red Clover-hay, | 75 | 1.70 | 1.54 |
| 3. | Rye-straw, | 479 | 0.30 | 0.24 |
| 4. | Oat-straw, | 383 | 0.36 | 0.30 |
| 5. | Wheat-straw, | 426 | 0.36 | 0.27 |
| 6. | Barley-straw, | 460 | 0.30 | 0.25 |
| 7. | Pea-straw, | 64 | 1.45 | 1.79 |
The following is the composition of these several substances, in which their relative value will more distinctly appear:
| Water. | Woody fibre. | Starch, Gum, Sugar. | Gluten, Albumen, etc. | Fatty matter. | Saline matter. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 30 | 40 | 7.1 | 2 to 5 | 5 to 10 |
| 14 | 25 | 40 | 9.3 | 3 to 5 | 9 |
| 12 to 15 | 45 | 38 | 1.3 | 4 | |
| 12 | 45 | 35 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 6 |
| 12 to 15 | 50 | 30 | 1.3 | 2 to 3 | 5 |
| 12 to 15 | 50 | 30 | 1.3 | 5 | |
| 10 to 15 | 25 | 45 | 12.3 | 1.5 | 4 to 6 |