The Bloomfield Times

FARM AND HOUSEHOLD ITEMS

MILCH COWS.

The Lancaster Inquirer says: Some of the best dairymen in this section have proved, that if cows are allowed to stay all night in the field during the fall months and eat in pastures where there have been heavy frost the preceding night, it decreases very materially the quantity of milk. It is highly probable that neglect of proper treatment, after the flush of pasture is over, in early fall, often causes cows to go dry sooner than they otherwise would—making them unprofitable all winter. Milch cows at this season, when grass diminishes both in quantity and quality, require additional feed, some hay or corn-fodder, refuse cabbage or root tops, in connection with a few quarts of bran daily. This should be given them under shedding or well protected barnyards, or the stable, letting them be turned out for a few hours in the middle of the day, only after the frost has disappeared. We know a farmer who has a certain number of quarts of milk to supply daily, who finds his cows diminish in their yield whenever they are turned out on frosted grass. A cow well summered and cared for during the whole fall, is well prepared for winter, and gets through it with comparative ease. If well supplied with roots, there will not be a great diminution in her yield of milk; and it has always seemed to us it would be better for farmers who have a fixed amount of milk or butter to supply every week, to take proper care of a good cow, and feed her well, instead of selling her to the butcher when her supply diminishes (often for causes which may be removed) and buying a fresh cow. There is no doubt much of our good stock goes annually to the butcher, from the mistaken notion that the required supply can not be made up, except by the purchase of a fresh cow.