Feeding Cows on Pasture

Because pasturage is the best and cheapest feed for dairy cows, the efficient dairyman takes the best possible care of his pastures. He develops them on good land, not any old field. He seeds them to productive grasses and legumes, fertilizes them to maintain high yields, manages them so that the herbage is grazed uniformly and thereby is kept growing Well, irrigates wherever necessary and possible, and removes clumps, weeds, and brush. He uses the several types of pasture-permanent, rotational, and temporary-in combination, where practicable, to supplement one another; thus he provides abundant grazing all season. In many places it is wise, also, to renovate old established permanent pasture.

Pasture is high in feeding value, but because it is succulent and bulky, the best milkers cannot eat enough total nutrients to meet their needs. Under good conditions they will consume as much as 150 pounds of grass daily or about 30 pounds of dry matter—enough for maintenance and the production of about 1.25 pounds of fat. But for higher production good pasture must be supplemented with feeds rich in energy like corn or barley. When pasturage is not abundant, hay or silage or both should be fed in addition. Cows relish a little dry hay along with pasturage; hay fed to cows before they go on legume pasture helps prevent bloat.

1. Based on yields per acre as follows: Alfalfa hay, 2 tons; clover and timothy, 1.3 tons; silage, 8 tons; corn, 40 bushels; and oats, 40 bushels.

2. Multiply the number of pounds by 3 to convert the hay to hay silage.

3. If the roughage is of low quality or contains little legume, some high-protein concentrate may have to be fed in addition to the farm grains. One can estimate this amount at one-fifth that of the farm grains.

4. An additional 2 acres of medium-quality permanent pasture is required for each cow.

How much supplemental feed should a dairyman give his cows when they are on pasture? That depends upon the relation of the cost of the feed to the amount of extra milk obtained beyond the production obtained on pasture alone. When cows are on poor or scarce pasture, however, they should not be allowed to get in poor condition because it will then be hard to get them back in high production when more pasturage is available. In table 3 we give the approximate amounts of milk of different fat content that good cows should be expected to produce on pastures of different qualities and the amount of concentrates that should be fed for each additional 5 pounds of milk daily that the cows will produce. This schedule has been followed with success and will help a farmer determine when and how much supplemental feed he should provide. To illustrate : Suppose a cow will produce 45 pounds of 4-percent milk when grazing on good pasture, provided she is adequately fed. The pasture should provide for the production of 30 pounds of milk. To enable her to produce the extra 15 pounds, it is necessary to feed 6.6 pounds of concentrate (2.2 pounds X 3) or its equivalent in the form of roughage. Good pasture is rich in protein, and it is not necessary to feed extra protein unless the pasturage is limited and poor.

Feeding Cows Not on Pasture

Roughage is the basis of the winter ration. However, if a farmer depends on roughage for most of the ration, it must be of good quality so that the cows will eat enough to furnish the necessary nutrients. Emphasis should be given to growing legumes or legume-grass mixtures, because they are richer in protein, minerals, and carotene than are grasses alone. The crops should be harvested when they are in the early-bloom or early-head stage because then they have more protein and total digestible nutrients than more mature forage.

Forage that is made into hay varies greatly in quality, depending on its stage of growth when it is cut, conditions of curing and storing, and so on. Every effort should be made to save the leaves, because they contain most of the protein, minerals, and carotene. A good way to put up forage of this kind, particularly the first cutting, in areas where haying weather is not good, is to make it into silage. In this way the crop can be gotten off the field more or less independently of weather conditions when it is in the right stage, with a small loss of nutrients. By harvesting the first cutting quite early, where that is possible, silage of high protein content is produced. Such silage, fed liberally with corn silage and good hay made from later crops, supplies most of the protein needed.

Cows eat large amounts of roughage when it is good. Tests have shown that animals maintained on good roughage alone produce about 70 percent as much milk as when fed concentrates in addition.

When plenty of high-quality roughage is available and the price of milk is low compared to the price of concentrates, it probably is economical to feed only roughage. Usually it is profitable, however, to feed concentrates, particularly where a home-grown supply is available. When the demand for milk is strong, it is profitable to feed concentrates liberally, particularly to the good cows.

The total digestible nutrients in good hay average about 50 percent; those in grass or legume silage, about 18 percent; and those in corn silage, about 20 percent. These are convenient figures to use in estimating the energy value of roughages. The protein in these feeds varies considerably more than does the total digestible nutrient content. The amount of protein that is fed in the concentrates should be governed by the protein content of the roughages. Tests have shown that when high-quality legume hay is fed in unlimited amounts, home-grown grains like corn or mixtures of corn and barley or wheat are perfectly satisfactory supplements for liberal production. Cows will eat about 1.5 pounds of good hay and 3 to 3.5 pounds of silage daily per 100 pounds of weight when the average amount of concentrates is fed. If no concentrate is fed, they will eat 2 to 2.5 pounds of good hay. Small cows may eat less. Large cows may eat more. When 1.5 pounds of hay and 3 pounds of silage are used as the daily consumption of roughages, they will provide enough nutrients for maintenance and several pounds of milk, depending on the test of the milk. This is indicated in table 5, which lists the number of pounds of concentrate needed for each additional 5 pounds of milk the cow will produce. If the concentrate mixture used properly balances the roughage, as shown in table 6, that schedule will meet the requirements for protein and total digestible nutrients given in table 1.

We have learned from experiments that under average conditions, cows will produce more milk when fed more total digestible nutrients. This should be done whenever it is profitable to do so. The cow's capacity is limited, and heavy feeding should be done with concentrates because they are richer in energy per unit of weight.

The profitableness of feeding more heavily than the standards call for depends upon the relation between the price of a pound of concentrate and the value of the additional milk produced. The most important time to feed heavily on concentrates is in the first half of the lactation period, when the urge to produce is greatest. It also is important to feed so that the cows may be in good flesh when they calve. If that is done, they are better able to meet the heavy demands for milk secretion at that time and will "milk off" the reserve energy stored in their body fat.