FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, 30 January 1931, Page 12

FARM AND DAIRY

FOOD FOR STOCK. PLAINT OF THE DAIRY COW. The Israelites of old, when called to task by Pharaoh, explained that they could not be expected to make bricks without straw. The dairy cow on many farms to-day, if she were gifted with speech, would have an. equally good, excuse for not “delivering the goods.” From thousands of bovine throats would arise the cry, “How can we produce milk without protein?” Thousands of-farmers are merely keeping cows while the cows: would be glad to return the favour and, keep the owners if tliey had a chance, comments Professor C. H. Eckles in Hoard’s DairymanEven within the procession of discards headed\ towards the stockyards, undoubtedly sometimes one is sent not as an act of justice, but because she never had a chance.

No matter how good a cow a man has to work for him,' results can be had only when the cow has a sufficient amount of the proper raw materials with which to work. In other words, she must be fed right, which means, for one thing, that she must have enough protein. '■ If a carpenter is building a house and runs out of nails,.it does not help matters to bring n >re lumber. He must have nails and nothing will take their place. A cow | already abundantly supplied with timothy hay'■and maize will do but little better if given some barley or maize fodder in addition. What is lacking is protein, and nothing else will take its place./ Give her some legume hay or a little linseed meal and see what happens. It is a well-known fact that in Northern Europe the average milk production per cow is 50 per cent, more than , ill the leading, dairy States in the United States. One reason is that the feeds grown there are higher in protein .and seldom is there any special shortage of tliis constituent. Here we grow timothy hay and maiz®, both good feeds, but low in protein. -Wild hay is likewise lacking in this respect. Oats contain about the right proportion qf protein, but it is not high enough to make up the shortage in other feeds. Home-grown rations are almost certain to bq short in protein unless lucerne is the chief roughable grown. , ■ ' ' With lucerne . and farm-grown grain the average • good cow can get enough protein, but for the heavy milker there will still be a shortage.. The thing to do is clear. It is to raise your protein, if possible, principally in the form of legume hays. ■ If, however, additional protein is needed do not hesitate to buy it. It pays even at the high price such feeds always bring. So long as farm-grown, grains are on hand, do not buy low protein feeds merely because they are cheaper. As a matter of fac(,. the cheapest source of protein is nearly always in those feeds highest in protein, such as linseed meal, cotton-seed meal, gluten meal, or mixed feeds guaranteed to contain at least 32 per cent, protein. Two pounds a day of high protein feed added to a home-grown grain ration will help, but wonderfully, especially when no legume hay is on hand.

PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY.

SIZE IN THE MILKER. At a meeting ■ of milking Shorthorn breeders in’Massachusetts, United States, a man who teaches dairying said that he always stressed the practical importance of size in dairy cows, in his classroom work. Big cows, with roomy barrels, he said, possess a great digestive capacity and, therefore, produce more milk than small cows. He further remarked that in dairy herds of all breeds there is- a const, it tendency toward less rather than greater size in the average of the animals. ' Practical breeders have discussed these and related points for years. Most of them prefer medium-sized cows to big cows, and as between a very large cow and a small one of the same nrcc.d tnat produced well; they would choose the latter; provided, of course, that she was not conspicuously small. Most of the highest producers in dairy herds are medium to comparatively small in sizcj for their breed. . Cows that are exceptional in size, usually do not turn out-so well in the long run as medium-sized cows, foi breeding, says the Rural New Ypiker. Plenty of size, combined with smoothness, quality, and the capacity to produce and reproduce -satisfactorily, is to be desired in a cow of any breed. Every experienced stockman knows, however, that, as a • rule, exceptionally large animals- of any breed- are deficient, in smoothness and quality, and disappointing as breeders. Breeding for extreme in any direction is too hazardous for practical purposes. Individuality, trueness to type, and what is sometii.ies called “temperament’’ in dairy cows, are of greater importance, in .milk production, and in breeding performance, than mere bigness, even.- it it-be combined with fair to good quality and milking ability. As a milker, breeder, and dam, the medium-sized cow almost always excels the cow that is much larger than th© average of her breed.

The man who knows his cows and his breed does not bother much about size. It will usually take care of itself if the herd is handled and fed well. The most economical producers and reproducers within a breed vary widely in size, but the majority of them are medium to small in stature.

MANURES AND WEEDS.

EFFECTS OF LIME.

Dr. Winifred -E. Brenchley, dealing with the influences of fertilisers on meadow hay, showed that fertilisers exercise an indirect, as well ,as direct, action on yield on grass and arable land by influencing the growth of plants-other than the desired crop, so varying the degree of competition to which 'the crop is subjected. The composition of weeds or undesirable plants is a much more important factor in determining yield than is generally recognised. On arable land the type of manuring that is favourable to good crop production also favours the growth. of weeds. If seasonal conditions encourage the gerpiination and growth of weed seeds before the crop makes headway, the competition causes serious reduction qf crop yield, which is frequently more marked with heavy than with light manuring. The potential' weed flora may be very abundant, quantitative experiments at Rothamsted showing that the-number of viable weed seeds buried in the soil may run' into hundreds of millions per acre with certain type of fertilisers. On grassland the effect of artificial fertilisers is variously. influenced by liming. On heavy' land long-continued treatment with sulphate of ammonia and minerals .tends to produce acid soil conditions, and the production of a herbage composed of the less desirable grasses and giving relatively low yield. Liming under these conditions increases yield greatly, and changes the. balance of composition in favour of more desirable species. On the other hand, on the same soil liming has much less or no beneficial effect with one-sided manures, such as superphosphate alone, or .where the soil is tending toward an alkaline reaction due to the use of nitrate of soda and minerals.