Stock and stalks

by James Russel Roberts

The red farmer’s cow is often called the dual-purpose animal. She is about half way between the beef and the dairy. She protects herself well but not to the limit as does the Hereford. She produces milk well but not nearly so well as do the highly-bred and highly-developed strictly dairy types. Not one of these three types of cows will do to substitute for any other. Each has a place to fill and each is the best animal in her place. There is nothing more foolish than to substitute the dairy breeds for common cattle before we substitute the dairy man for the farmer or else convert the farmer to the dairyman’s methods in feeding. The corn stalks and waste feed make the cheapest milk and the red cow is the most economical means of converting such feeds into milk, provided we want only a small production with the least possible effort. It takes more labor to prepare feed for animals and feed it to them than it does to let the animals range around over the field and do the best they can. If farm dairying is to be carried on in the future just as it has been in the past, the red cow is the farmer’s best friend and he is not a fool for recognizing her as such.

This is not a pet theory of mine. It is a conclusion that I have had to swallow against my will. The situation has nothing of promise for the future. If we become a dairy state, we will have to put more labor and effort into milk production and do more like they do in other states. The stalks left standing in the field, feeding but a few thick-skinned cattle make the cheapest milk, only in case we figure the by-product feeds as of no value. We could produce a great deal more cattle for beef and for dairy purposes if we utilized what we now waste. If all the corn in our state was shocked this year, think how much good feed would remain after the grain is husked out. Think how many cattle might be wintered. The stalks from one acre of average corn if properly conserved yield nearly enough rough feed for one cow during the entire winter. Fifty acres yield fully enough for forty head of cattle. Of course we should use alfalfa for part of the ration but alfalfa is our cheapest feed that is not a by-product. Grain will be required for cattle that milk, but raising calves and keeping dry stock is as much a part of milk production as anything else. All such cattle can be well-nourished and developed without grain. It will not pay to refine them to such an extent that they can not live on rough feed.

But conditions are changing again. Labor, grain, and alfalfa are all coming down and land is high in price. We will not long be taking only what we can get the easiest. The time is at hand when we are going to imitate the packer who saves all but the squeal. The conditions existing in the eastern states will be found here. I do not know how soon but they are coming. It will be a long time before the specialized producer can compete with the by-product feeder, but the latter is going to save more of what he has and use it to better advantage as soon as he can get labor. Dairy products are going to be in great enough demand to pay the extra labor costs. I do not look for all of the system to be reversed. The farmer’s idea of feeding cattle what could be used for nothing else has been and will still be his salvation. Those of us who produced nothing but milk were wrong, from the standpoint of economy, in my opinion. What I look for now is a combination between the two systems. Cows will be taken care of as well as we cared for our high producers, there will be a change in the methods of caring for feed, but a large part of the feed will be the by-products of other farming operations. What is the use of feeding all green-backs when we can make use of feed that costs nothing? We could produce more milk by using specialized methods altogether but we can make enough without, and it will be cheaper.

But the standard methods, that always have been and still are taught, are altogether intensive. Every one talks of high records. There is not enough talk of low-cost records.

A few years ago there was published in the Nebraska Farmer the cow-testing association records of herds in Lancaster county. Some of these herds yielded a large production and others yielded much less. But the herds that produced less yielded at a higher rate of profit. The difference was in the amount of grain and expensive foods consumed in proportion to the production. During the last few years those who have fed grain and alfalfa as we used to feed, have found it difficult to meet expenses. We used to be taught that, since a cow required so much to maintain her body whether she produced milk or not and only the amount she consumed above that amount could be available for milk production, it was well to feed as much grain as possible without injuring the cow or reducing her flow. But the price of feed must be reckoned, as all admit now. And if grain is too high the larger proportion of our milk must come from the cheaper feeds. At present the grain market looks very bad and intensive dairying would be more profitable now than it has been for a long time.

But the combination, which I think is ideal, will be the best proposition all of the time. In all further discussions in this booklet I refer to dairy breeds exclusively for I believe that the tide is turning and if the red cow and the old methods are still to take the lead, it is a waste of time to study dairying. If farmers wish to increase their milk production and find their way clear to devote more time to their cattle, this discussion may be of some assistance.

Dairy cows have certain definite requirements. One of the most important of these is that they go through no periods in which they do not have all they want to eat of at least good grass or good hay or roughage. If the grass begins to get a little short in the summer, we must not neglect to feed. Another important requirement of the dairy cow is that she be not exposed to hardships such as cold winds and rains. Starvation and storms, these two things above all—we must guard the dairy cow against.

I will describe how I think dairying should be conducted for the most profit on the farm so that the by-products may be utilized to the fullest extent practicable and at the same time the dairy type cattle may be kept producing to good advantage. I am not inventing this system, for I am describing the common practice of the people in the dairy states. In Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota cattle are kept largely on by-products. In the cheap feed lies the profits.

Elsewhere I have described my own methods of handling pasture, the idea of which came from Europe. But as to winter feeding, the whole eastern part of the United States sets a good example. I would want one or two silos, small in diameter but tall. I would want one acre of alfalfa and one acre of pasture for every cow that I expected to keep. If we have a large number of young stock, the pasture would need to be increased. I would fill these silos with corn, grain and all, and use the silage to feed only the cows giving milk. I would use a Smalley feed cutter with snapping attachments and use cut-up dry fodder containing no grain as the principal feed for the dry cows and all young stock on the place. The farmer usually milks only one-half as many cows as he has cattle all together. By using “Flink’s Perfect Silo Seal” to protect the silage it may be fed all summer whenever needed without waste. What stalks remain to be pastured may be pastured by the milk cows and so may wheat be pastured during good weather. I would depend upon by-product feed for dry cattle and for part of the milk cow’s ration. The amount of grain that is in corn silage is never too much for any cow that is giving milk, but silage, corn and all, is too expensive for cattle that are not milking.

By such methods the eastern farmer easily keeps at least twice the number of cattle that the average farmer here is now keeping, and still he takes but little more of his land away from other farming operations. The intensive dairyman uses all that he raises for his cows and usually buys some besides. The by-product farmer in Nebraska has been in the habit of setting aside hardly any acreage for the use of his cattle. But the combination is positively a success and would have long ago been more in use in Nebraska had not the labor situation presented difficulties almost impossible to overcome. My farm is small and borders on the very edge of the city. Intensive dairying is the only thing practical for me even though I can not expect to produce as cheaply as farmers differently situated. I am re-stocking the farm this year.