DO COWS EAT TOO MUCH?

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3447, 24 March 1932, Page 7

DO COWS EAT TOO MUCH?

New Zealand dairymen have been advised to give a cow as much as she will eat, in order to secure her maximum production.

Now it is suggested in England that cattle on a free range of feed eat a great deal more than what is actually good for them. To counteract this, tethering is recommended, and it is suggested that by this means two cows might be carried where only one is kept now. This suggestion has been condemned by some farmers as a timewasting fad, involving unreasonably high labour costs. Replying to this, a London correspondent writes: —

"I do not agree. The Danes and the Channel Islanders are canny folk, and they tether their stock as a general part of their farming practice.

"All members of a pedigree Guernsey herd, including the bulls, are tethered, arid the economies effected are considerable. "It is common knowledge that cattle on free range eat a good deal more than they actually need to keep up their production, and by tethering one can keep a strict check on their consumption, carry a much heavier stock per acre, and generally regulate the diet to an extent impossible under other conditions. "In the springtime most dairy farmers have some trouble with cows scouring when first turned out on fresh young grass. This is not due so much to any property in the young grass, but to the voracious appetites of the cows when turned out for their first arly bite." The unaccustomed food is so tempting that they make themselves as sick as some children at Christmas by eating far more than is good for them. "This affects their general health, and, therefore, their milk yield.

"Allied with carefully planned nitrogenous manuring and rotational grazing, the tethering principle should assist the dairy farmer to make the pasture lands of England carry double the herd of stock they carry to-day. "One other point. Tethering saves fencing."