Chapter 3

Some saving is effected in the grazing, and the resultant fertilizer from the grain fed has a tangible value. It is certain, therefore, that full value will be obtained for a small grain ration thus fed.

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | ~GET MORE MILK MONEY~ | | | |Help your cows, every one, to give the largest possible amount of milk | |and to produce big, strong, husky calves each season. The _extra_ pounds| |of milk, the _extra_ value of the calves are all clear profit. | | | |[Illustration: Pratts Cow Remedy] | | | |It costs as much to house and care for and nearly as much to feed a poor| |producer as a good one. The first may be kept at a loss. The latter is a| |sure profit-payer. The difference is generally merely a matter of | |physical condition. And this _you_ can control. | | | |Pratts Cow Remedy makes cows healthy and productive. It is not a | |food--it is _all medicine_, preventive and curative. It is absolutely | |safe to use because free from arsenic, antimony and other dangerous | |ingredients. | | | | ~PRATTS COW REMEDY~ | | | |is nature's able assistant. It not only improves appetite and assists | |digestion, increases milk yield and percentage of butter fat, but in | |large measure prevents and overcomes such disorders as barrenness and | |abortion, garget, milk fever, scours, indigestion, liver and kidney | |troubles. | | | |The reason is plain when you know the ingredients. Here they | |are--gentian root, Epsom salts, capsicum, oxide of iron, fenugreek, nux | |vomica, ginger root, charcoal, soda, salt. All of superior quality and | |properly proportioned and combined. | | | |You may _think_ your cows are doing their best when they are not. _Now | |find out_. Secure a supply of the original and genuine Pratts Cow | |Remedy. Use it and watch results. You will be astonished and delighted. | |But if for any reason you are not-- | | | | "~YOUR MONEY BACK IF YOU ARE NOT SATISFIED~" | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+

As soon as the supply of pasture becomes insufficient in quantity or lacking in succulence, it should be supplemented with food cut and fed in the green form, as winter rye, oats and peas, and oats and vetches grown together, millet in several varieties, grasses, perennial and Italian rye, especially the latter, alfalfa, the medium red, the mammoth, alsike and crimson clovers, corn of many varieties, and the sorghums. Alfalfa, where it can be freely grown, is king among soiling foods. Peas and oats grown together are excellent, the bulk being peas. Corn is more commonly used, and in some sections sweet sorghum is given an important place. The aim should be to grow soiling foods that will be ready for feeding in that succession that will provide food through all the summer and autumn. Soiling furnished by grains, grasses, and clovers are usually fed in the stables or feed yards, and corn and sorghum are usually strewn over the pastures, as much as is needed from day to day.

Where much soiling food is wanted from year to year, it would seem safe to say that it can be most cheaply supplied in the form of silage. Even when grass is abundant, cows will eat with avidity more or less of ensilage well made. They should not be fed in winter more than 25 pounds per animal per day, but the quantity needed is determined largely by the condition of the pastures. Because of the less quantity of the silage called for in summer, the silo that contains the silage should be of less diameter than the silo that holds food for winter use, otherwise the exposed silage will dry out too much between the times of feeding it.

In autumn soiling foods may be fed with profit that are possessed of less succulence than would suffice at an earlier period, as in the autumn the pastures are usually more succulent than in the summer. Corn may be fed at such a time with much advantage from the shock, and sorghum that has been harvested may likewise be fed from the shock or from the cocks. Pumpkins may be thrown into the pasture and broken when fed.

Viewed from the standpoint of milk production, the legumes (clover, cow peas, soy beans, etc.) must be assigned first rank. After these come grain fodders, corn and sorghum fodders, and fodders from grasses, suitable in the order named. Lowest of all is straw furnished by the small cereals. Fodders when fed are not restricted in quantity as concentrates are.

Among legumes, hay furnished by alfalfa, any of the clovers, cow peas, soy beans and vetches, is excellent for producing milk when these are cut at the proper stage and properly cured. Alfalfa should be cut for such feeding when only a small per cent. of blooms have been formed, clovers when in full bloom, and cow peas, soy beans, and vetches when the first forward pods are filling. Proper curing means by the aid of wind stirring through the mass rather than sun bleaching it.

When good leguminous fodders are fed, from 33 to 50 per cent. less grain will suffice than would be called for when non-leguminous fodders only are fed.

_Leavenworth, Kansas.

When two veterinarians had given up a cow to die, I gave her Pratts Animal Regulator with the result that she was on her feed in about a week. I am a constant user of Pratt Products.

J.D. WATSON._ -----------------------------------------------------------------

Fodder may usually be cheaply furnished from corn and sorghum, when grown so that the stalks are fine and leafy, and if cut when nearing completed maturity and well cured. Such food is excellent for milk production when fed with suitable adjuncts, even though the fodder is grown so thickly that nubbins do not form. The aim should be to feed the sorghums in the autumn and early winter and the corn so that it may be supplemented by other hay when the winter is past, as later than the time specified these foods deteriorate.

Rye and wheat straw are of little use in making milk, oat straw is better, and good bright pea straw is still more valuable. When fodder is scarce, these may be fed to advantage if run through a cutting box and mixed with cut hay.

_Thomaston, Ga.

Since I started feeding her Pratts Cow Remedy, my cow has shown an increase in her daily flow of milk of over one gallon and is now in better condition than she has ever been. I give all the credit for this remarkable improvement to Pratts Cow remedy.

O.W. JONES._ -----------------------------------------------------------------

The necessity for feeding succulent food in some form where maximum milk yields are to be attained has come to be recognized by all dairy-men. The plants that furnish succulence in winter are corn in all its varieties, field roots of certain kinds, and the sorghums. Corn and sorghum to furnish the necessary succulence must be ensiled. Corn ensilage is without a rival in providing winter succulence for cows. Field roots furnish succulence that, pound for pound, is more valuable than corn, because of the more favorable influence which it exerts on the digestion. But roots cost more to grow than corn. Rutabagas and turnips will give the milk an offensive taint if fed freely at any other time than just after the milk has been withdrawn, but that is not true of mangel wurtzel, sugar beets, or carrots.

The necessity for giving grain feed containing high percentage of digestible matter (known as concentrates) to dairy cows is based on the inability of the cow to consume and digest enough coarse fodders to result in maximum production, even though the fodders should be in balance as to their constituents.

Concentrates are purchased or home grown. It matters not from which source they are obtained, but the values of those purchased are becoming so high as to force upon dairy-men the necessity of growing them at home as far as this may be practicable, and of insuring sound digestion by giving some such tonic and appetizer as Pratts Cow Remedy. This splendid prescription should be kept on hand the year round, and should be given with every feeding, especially in winter. Its value in keeping up milk production and for maintaining health is unequalled.

The method of furnishing concentrates by growing certain of the small grains in combination is growing in favor. These combinations may include wheat, barley, outs, peas, and flax. Frequently but two varieties are grown together. They are grown thus, in the first place, to secure better yields, and, in the second, to furnish concentrates in approximate balance. Such a food, for instance, is obtained from growing wheat and oats together, and if some flax is grown in the mixture it will be further improved.

When choosing concentrates for feeding cows, the aim should be to select them so that when fed along with the roughage on hand, they will be in approximate balance, that is, the elements in them will best meet the needs of the cows.

If a flesh and milk-making food, like clover, is the source of the fodder, then a fat and heat-producing food, like corn, should furnish a large proportion of the grain fed. But it is not more profitable in all instances to feed foods in exact balance. Some of the factors may be so high priced and others so cheap that it will pay better to feed them more or less out of balance.

When good clover hay or alfalfa is being fed to cows in milk, any one of the following grain supplements will give satisfactory results.

(1) Corn meal and wheat bran, equal parts by weight.

(2) Corn meal, wheat bran, and ground oats in the proportions of 2, 1, and 1 parts.

(3) Corn meal, wheat bran, and cottonseed meal in the proportion of 2, 1, and 1 parts. Whether corn meal or corn and cob meals is fed is not very material. Barley meal may be fed instead of corn.

Should corn ensilage be fed to the extent of, say, 40 pounds per day along with clover or alfalfa, any one of the following grain supplements should suffice:

(1) Corn or barley meal, wheat bran, and ground oats, fed in equal parts by weight.

(2) Corn or barley meal and wheat bran, fed in the proportions of 1 and 2 parts.

(3) Corn or barley meal, cottonseed meal, and wheat or rice bran, fed in equal proportions.

(4) Ground peas and oats, also fed in equal proportions. The succotash mixture may be fed alone or in conjunction with other meal added to make the food still more in balance.

It is preferable to feed meal admixed with cut fodders. The mastication that follows will then be more thorough and the digestion more complete. When ensilage is fed, admixture will result sufficiently if the meal is thrown over the ensilage where it has been put into the mangers.

In order to insure the animal obtaining full benefit of all its feed, it will be found highly profitable to include Pratts Cow Remedy with the daily ration. It acts as a digestive and at the same time insures a healthy and natural action of the bowels.

Bulls should be fed and managed with a view to secure good, large and robust physical development and the retention of begetting powers unimpaired to a good old age. The aim should be to avoid tying bulls in the stall continuously for any prolonged period, but to give them opportunity to take exercise in box stalls, paddocks, and pastures to the greatest extent that may be practicable.

_Jacksonville, Fla.

Have used Pratts Cow Remedy with good success as a general tonic and for increasing milk. Omitting it at intervals as a test showed a falling off of about a pint for each cow, which was always made up when the remedy was added.

T.C. JOHNSTON._ -----------------------------------------------------------------

A ring should be inserted in the nose when not yet one year old. Rings most commonly used are two and one-half to three inches in diameter. When inserting them the head of the animal should be drawn tightly up to a post or other firm objects, so that the muzzle points upward at a suitable angle. A hole is then made with a suitable implement through the cartilage between the nasal passages, and forward rather than backward in the cartilage. The ring is then inserted, the two parts are brought together again, and they are held in place by a small screw. When ringed, a strap or rope with a spring attached will suffice for a time when leading them, but later they should be led with a lead, which is a strong, tough circular piece of wood, four to five feet long, with a snap attached to one end.

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | ~SELL THE MILK BUT GROW THE CALVES~ | | | |Whole milk is too valuable to use as calf feed, even if calves--both | |veals and those kept for dairy purposes--are selling at such high | |prices. Sell the milk, get all the cash out of it, but grow the calves| |just the same. Merely feed the perfect milk substitute-- | | | | ~PRATTS CALF MEAL | | "BABY FOOD FOR BABY CALVES"~ | | | |When prepared and fed in accordance with the simple directions, Pratts| |Calf Meal will grow calves _equal to those grown on whole or skim-milk| |and at less cost_. | | | |This truly wonderful calf feed has practically the same chemical | |composition as the solids of whole milk. It is made of superior | |materials, carefully selected and especially adapted to calf feeding. | |These are milled separately and bolted to remove hulls and coarse | |particles, which insures perfect digestion. Finally, the mixture is | |thoroughly steam-cooked, in a sense pre-digested. | | | |Calves fed Pratts way thrive and grow rapidly and are not subject to | |scours and other calf disorders. Just make a test. Feed some calves | |_your_ way and some _Pratts_ way. Let your eye and the scales tell the| |story. Learn how easy it is to grow the best of calves at less cost. | | | | "YOUR MONEY BACK IF YOU ARE NOT SATISFIED" | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

Avoid using in service bulls under one year. During the one-year form they should not be allowed to serve more than a score of cows; after they have reached the age of 24 to 30 months they may be used with much freedom in service until the vital forces begin to weaken with age. When properly managed, waning should not begin before the age of 7 or 8 years. It has been found that the bull's service can be made more sure by the use of Pratts Cow Remedy, because of its mild and safe tonic properties. Bulls should he able to serve from 75 to 300 cows a year without injury when the times of service spread over much of the year.

Calves reared to be made into meat at a later period are very frequently allowed to nurse from their dams. This should never be done in the dairy. Such a method of raising them is adverse to maximum milk giving, as the calves when young cannot take all the milk the cows are capable of giving; hence the stimulus is absent that would lead her to give more.

At no time in the life of a dairy cow should she be allowed to suckle her calf longer than the third day of its existence.

In certain parts of the country, especially where whole milk is sold for consumption in the cities, dairy-men frequently kill calves at birth because of lack of milk for feeding them. This practice is wrong and unnecessary. All strong calves should be grown, either for milking animals or veal. And this can now be done, easily and cheaply, by feeding Pratts Calf Meal, the perfect milk substitute, the guaranteed "baby food for baby calves." When this scientific food is used, calves of really superior quality, big, sturdy, vigorous, are grown practically without milk.

Pratts Calf Meal must not be confused with coarse mixtures of mill by-products sometimes sold as "calf meal" or "calf food." Pratts is as carefully made as the baby foods which are so widely used for children. It appeals to the calf's appetite, is easily and quickly digested, produces rapid growth and even development. It does not cause scours and other digestive troubles. And it is easy to prepare and feed.

In chemical composition, Pratts Calf Meal is practically identical with the solids of whole milk. It is made exclusively of materials especially suited to calf feeding and these are always of the highest quality obtainable. This is one secret of the great success of this truly remarkable feed.

The various materials are ground very fine, milled separately, and are then bolted to remove any coarse particles. They are then combined in exact proportions and thoroughly mixed.

Finally, the mixture is steam-cooked, which makes the feed easy to digest and assimilate. This expensive, but most necessary process, prevents indigestion and bowel troubles which accompany the use of unbolted, uncooked meals.

Where milk is available for calf feeding the following plan may be used:

The young calf should take milk from its dam for, say, three days. During that period the milk is only fit for feeding purposes. It is very important that the calf shall be started right, and in no way can this be done so well as by Nature's method, that is, by allowing it to take milk from the dam at will. At the end of that time it should be taught to drink. This can usually be accomplished without difficulty by allowing the calf to become hungry before its first lesson in drinking. It should be given all whole milk, for say, two weeks. This given in three feeds per day, and not more in quantity, as a rule, than two quarts at a feed.

The change from whole to skim-milk should be made gradually. A small amount of skim-milk should be added to the whole milk the first day, and a corresponding amount of whole milk withheld. The amount of skim-milk increased from day to day, and the whole milk fed decreased correspondingly. The time covered in making the change from all whole to all skim-milk should be from one to two weeks. Any skim-milk that is sweet will answer, but it should not be fed to young calves at a lower temperature than about 98 degrees in winter. Milk obtained by cream separators, soon after drawn from the cow, is particularly suitable.

As soon as the change from whole to skim-milk is begun, some substitute should be added to replace the fat withheld by reducing the amount of whole milk fed. Ground flax or oil-meal is the best. It is generally fed in the latter form. In some instances the oil-meal is put directly into the milk beginning with a heaping teaspoonful and gradually increasing the quantity. A too lax condition of the digestion would indicate that an excessive amount was being fed. Later the meal may be more conveniently fed when mixed with other meal.

_Riverdale, Md.

Very much pleased with results of Pratts Animal Regulator during the present period of my cows breeding. An extraordinary strong calf and the mother in fine condition.

WM. C. GRAY._ -----------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as the calves will eat meal it should be given to them. No meal is more suitable at the first than ground oats and wheat bran. A little later whole oats will answer quite well. To calves grown for dairy uses they may form the sole grain food. If the calves are to be grown for beef, some more fattening food, as ground corn, or ground barley, should be added to the meal. For such calves, equal parts of bran, oats whole or ground, and ground corn, barley, rye, or speltz are excellent. Until three months old they may be allowed to take all the grain that they will eat. Later it may be necessary to restrict the quantity fed. Calves for the dairy must be kept in a good growing condition, but without an excess of fat. The meal should be kept in a box at all times accessible to the calves and should be frequently renewed. Grain feeding may cease when the calves are put upon pasture.

As soon as the calves will eat fodder it should be given to them. Fodder gives the necessary distention to the digestive organs, which makes the animals capable of taking a sufficient quantity of food to result in high production. Alfalfa, clover-hay, and pea and oat hay are excellent, provided they are of fine growth and cut before they are too advanced in growth. If field roots can be added to the fodder the result in development and good digestion will be excellent. Any kind of field roots are good, but mangels, sugar beets, and rutabagas are the most suitable because of their good keeping qualities. They should be fed sliced, preferably with a root slicer, and the calves may be given all that they will eat without harm resulting.

The duration of the milk period more commonly covers three to four months with calves that are hand fed, but it may be extended indefinitely providing skim-milk may be spared for such a use. Such feeding is costly. Calves reared on their dams are seldom allowed milk for more than six or seven months, save when they are reared for show purposes.

(1) The amount should be determined by the observed capacity of the calf to take milk and by the relative cost of the skim-milk and the adjuncts fed along with it.

(2) During the first weeks until it begins to eat other food freely, it should be given all the milk that it will take without disturbing the digestion.

(3) Usually it would be safe to begin with six pounds of milk per day, giving eight pounds at the end of the first week, and to add one pound each week subsequently until the age of 10 to 12 weeks. Any excess of milk given at one time usually disturbs the digestion and is followed by too lax a condition of the bowels.