Is it necessary to feed mulch cows any hay or concentrated feed in addition to green corn stalks?
It is necessary. Green corn is an excellent thing for milch cows, but it is a very unbalanced ration and needs alfalfa or something else to balance it up. Green corn, for example, contains only about one per cent of digestible protein and 11.5 per cent of digestible carbohydrates and 0.4 per cent fat, or a nutritive ratio of about 1 to 12 1/2. A proper ration would be about 1 to 6 or 7, or less. To balance this up alfalfa can be fed better than anything else in California, for that is very rich in protein and the cheapest supply of protein that there is. If you give the cows a good supply of alfalfa hay with the green corn, you will have an ideal combination.
Dry Sorghum Fodder.
Is Egyptian corn fodder good for cows? I have been told it would dry up the milk. I have several acres and would like to feed it if it is not harmful.
Dry sorghum fodder is counted about the poorest roughage that one would think of harvesting. It is much less valuable than Indian corn fodder. Egyptian corn is one of the non-saccharine sorghums which are valuable both for grain or for green feeding. We never heard of direct milk-drying effect, though such a result might be expected from feeding such innutritive material, which is also difficult of digestion. If fed for roughness it should be in connection with concentrated foods like bran or oil meal or with green alfalfa. No cow can give much milk when the feed is hardly nutritive enough to keep her alive.
There seems to be, however, much difference in the dry fodders from different varieties of sorghum. One grower writes: "Kaffir corn is the only variety within our knowledge of which the fodder is of much value. We consider the fodder much more preferable than that of the ordinary Indian corn, and our stock eat it much more readily than the sweet sorghum. However, it requires a much longer season in which to ripen than does any of the other varieties, for which reason it is less desirable to plant in midsummer."
Steers on Alfalfa.
How much alfalfa hay will a two or three-year-old steer eat per day, and about what is the gain in weight per day?
A steer will clean up about 33 pounds per day. Steers will make about 1 1/2 pounds gain in weight per day.
Concentrates with Alfalfa.