“The cattle at this time are again turned out to drink, and, after being tied up on their return again, fed. Of course the stable is at this time again thoroughly cleansed. And so again at night the same course is pursued. At this time a good bedding is spread for each cow, and, after all are in, they are fed.
“At six o’clock the milking commences, and at its termination, after removing from the floor whatever manure may have been dropped, the stable is closed for the night. If carrots are fed, which is the only root allowed to my cows in milk, they are given at the time of the evening milking.
“Whatever material is taken for bedding (as corn-stalks, husks, &c.) is passed through a cutting-machine, and composes the noon feed, such portions as are not consumed by the cows being used for bedding. The additional labor of cutting up is amply compensated by the reduced amount of labor in working (loading) and ploughing under the manure.
“While I consider it highly desirable that the cows, during the period they are stabled, should be kept warm and dry, I regard it as indispensable that they should be perfectly clean; and, although the stock is stabled the whole time, care is taken that there is a sufficient degree of ventilation.”
In Herkimer county, New York, one of the best dairy districts in the country, a dairy farmer who kept twenty-five cows for the manufacture of cheese, making in one year nearly seven hundred pounds per cow, states his mode of feeding as follows: “When the ground is settled, and grass is grown so that cows can get their fill without too much toil, they are allowed to graze an hour, only, the first day; the second day a little longer, and so on, till they get accustomed to the change of feed before they are allowed to have full range of pasture. Shift of pasture is frequently made to keep feed fresh and a good bite. About one acre per cow affords plenty of feed till the first of August. If enough land was turned to pasture to feed the cows through the season, it would get a start of them about this time, and be hard and dry the balance of the season. To avoid turning on my meadows in the fall, I take one acre to every ten cows, plough and prepare it the fore part of June for sowing; I commence sowing corn broadcast, about half an acre at a time (for twenty-five cows), so that it may grow eighty or ninety days before it is cut and fed. I have found, by experiment, that it then contains the most saccharine juice, and will produce the most milk. If the ground is strong, I sow two bushels per acre; more if the ground is not manured.
“The common yield is from fifteen to twenty tons (of green feed) per acre. About the first of August, when heat and flies are too oppressive for cows to feed quietly in the day-time, I commence feeding them with what corn they will eat in the morning, daily, which is cut up with a grass-scythe, and drawn on a sled or wagon to the milk-barn and fed to them in the stalls, which is one hour’s work for a man at each feeding. When thus plentifully fed, my cows have their knitting-work on hand for the day, which they can do up by lying quietly under artificial shades, erected in such places as need manuring most, and are most airy, by setting posts and putting poles and bushes on top, the sides being left open. These shades may be made and removed annually, to enrich other portions of soil, if desired, at the small expense of one dollar for each ten cows. At evening, my cows are fed whey only, because they can feed more quietly, with less rambling, and will give more milk by feeding most when the dew is on the grass.
“The capacity of cows for giving milk is varied much by habit. In fall, after the season of feeding is past, I feed four quarts of wheat bran or shorts made into slop with whey, or a peck of roots to each cow, till milking season closes (about the first of December). When confined in stables and fed hay and milked, they are fed each one pail full of thin slop at morning before foddering, and also at evening, to render their food more succulent, and they will not drink so much cold water when let out in the middle of the day. In cold weather cows are kept well attended in warm stables. No foddering is done on the ground. Thus a supply of milk is kept up, and the cows get in good flesh, while their blood and bags are left in a healthy condition when dried off.
“This flesh they hold till milk season in spring, without other feed than good hay. They will not get fleshy bags, but come into milk at once. About the first of April they are carded daily, till they are turned to grass. Wheat-bran in milk or whey, slops, or roots, are daily fed, as they are found best adapted to the nature of different cows, and most likely to establish a regular flow of milk till grass comes.”
All practical dairymen concur in saying that a warm and well-ventilated barn is indispensable to the promotion of the highest yield of milk in winter; and most agree that cows in milk should not be turned out even to drink in cold weather, all exposure to cold tending to lessen the yield of milk.
In the London dairies, where, of course, the cows are fed so as to produce the largest flow of milk, the treatment is as follows: The cows are kept at night in stalls. About three A. M. each has half a bushel of grains. When milking is finished, each receives a bushel of turnips (or mangolds), and shortly afterwards one tenth of a truss of hay of the best quality. This feeding occurs before eight A. M., when the animals are turned into the yard. Four hours after, they are again tied up in their stalls, and have another feed of grains. When the afternoon milking is over (about three P. M.), they are fed with a bushel of turnips, and after the lapse of an hour, hay is given them as before. This mode of feeding usually continues throughout the root season, or from November to March. During the remaining months they are fed with grains, tares, and cabbages, and a proportion of rowen or second-cut hay. They are supplied regularly until they are turned out to grass, when they pass the whole of the night in the field. The yield is about six hundred and fifty gallons a year for each cow.