Many native cows respond, however, to good care and feed and with a thoroughbred bull a satisfactory herd can readily be built up from carefully selected native stock. Such continued cross-breeding is more apt to succeed than attempts to cross two thoroughbred breeds because the characteristic features in full-blooded animals are so strong as to invariably predominate in the progeny over the less pronounced forms and tendencies inherent in native cows. But where two full-blooded animals are mated and the strong characteristics in each are fighting for predominance the result is apt to be a poor, ill-proportioned offspring as the result of atavism.
Shorthorn, milk-strain
Beef-Cattle.—Cattle bred and developed for the purpose of producing beef rather than milk are called by contrast beef-cattle. As examples of beef-cows look at the Shorthorns or the Herefords or the Polled Angus at the next State Fair you visit and notice the square, deep, smooth body with muscles and fat strongly developed in contrast to the loosely built, bony milk-cow with its tendency to turn all its food into milk at the expense of the body. There are, however, also among the Shorthorns, strains of good milkers, but as a rule these beef-breeds are not selected for the dairy farm, and “dual purpose” cows are not usually profitable.
Food and Water.—The natural food for the dairy cow in summer is grass, and where rich, succulent grass and clover grow in abundance, as on the fertile meadows of Holland and the Channel Islands, or the Swiss Alps, the highly cultivated Danish farms, the eastern and middle-western states of America, etc., dairying early reached its highest development. As the value of milk and its products for human food became more generally recognized and all-the-year-round production was forced, it was found necessary to feed the cows heavily in winter too, not only hay, but also grain and succulent food such as beets and corn-ensilage (green corn cut, stalks, cobs and all, and packed in a silo), and science was taken into play to formulate Balanced Rations containing the proper amounts and proportions of the various nutrients—Protein, Fat and Carbohydrates. It is not the place here to go deeper into this problem which has long been a subject for thorough research and experiments. In fact, more attention has been paid to the feeding of cattle than to the proper nourishment of human beings, and much of what we know about the latter has been deducted from experience and study on the dairy farm, and from laboratory work along that line. In the chapter on “Milk as a Food” we are taking up food values, etc., in relation to the feeding of children and men. Suffice it here to say that the same fundamental principles apply to the feeding of calves and cattle for the production of milk and beef. And we wish to emphasize the fact that, with due consideration to the proper proportion between the various groups of nutrients, it is much more important that the food is succulent, appetizing and easily digestible than that the ration shall be accurately balanced.
Cutting ensilage and filling the silo
This fact, long well known to practical breeders and dairymen, has recently been confirmed by Dr. E. V. McCullom to whose experiments further reference is made in the chapter on milk as a food for children. He shows that there is a very great difference in the quality of Protein and Fat from various sources and that there is “Something Unknown” in butter-fat, for instance, which is absent in most other fats and which is vital for the growth of the child as well as for the proper nourishment of man. This unknown but essential substance is also found, in small quantities, in the leaves of certain plants, as in alfalfa, while it is absent in the grain of the cereals.
An abundant crop of alfalfa hay; cut three times during the summer. Supplies protein in the ration