Stock and stalks

Agriculture as a science is comparatively new. It is not like civil engineering, for instance, which is taught about alike in all places, and much of it the same as was taught a generation ago. Since I can remember most of what is now known about dairy science has been discovered. It is not surprising, therefore, that as the various ideas and doctrines come out they have both adherents and opponents. It takes time to clarify a situation and to prove what is the right conclusion. Some blame our agricultural colleges for not knowing more and knowing it sooner, and for spreading what we now know to have been in some cases misinformation. But the course taken was really the only one possible. Experiment stations have to try out a lot of theories in order to find which are wrong and which are right. At present there are many things still unknown and much difference of opinion. If the discussion which follows seems to differ in some respects with recognized authorities, I still think that I may be right; and if wrong, I claim as good a right as any one else to make mistakes.

Here are some things to think about. At one time there were more real dairy cattle in Lancaster county than there are at present. There were fairly large herds of grade Holsteins producing milk where now there are scarcely any cattle at all. Intensive dairying at one time had a fine start in Lancaster county, but now there is not a herd large enough to be called a dairy, except those owned by purebred breeders. The city milk supply comes from a large number of farmers who produce milk as a side issue. The methods of feeding and caring for cattle on these farms is in the main contrary to the instructions given by the dairy department at the State Farm. The men who made dairying a business here were learning and following agricultural college methods. They had good grade dairy cattle and produced fully twice as much per cow as do the farmers now in the business. They all quit because it did not pay.

It so happens that I was one of the men thus engaged. I had a fine herd of fifty high-grade Holsteins that were producing as much milk as is now being produced by thirty of our average dairy farmers. My herd was sold after losing money for two years. We were in a cow-testing association at the time and the fine records made by these cows helped to sell them at a public sale. Right in sight of the agricultural college all that had been accomplished seemed to fade away, and the old red cow, which dairy science has tried for a generation to kill, came back to the very skirts of the city. Just now if every dairy cow in Nebraska would be slaughtered, their milk would hardly be missed but if the old red cow would go on a strike, not a wheel in any creamery of the state would be turning next week.

Why this remarkable turn of events? Well, there are two theories. One of these lets the agricultural college and all of us out without disgrace and is something of a slam on the farmer. The other gives the farmer credit for having more sense than we had. Certain it is that the farmer milking his beef cow produced milk for less than we Holstein men could do it. The first theory is that the farmer did not know his costs and therefore kept right on while the deficiency came out of his hide. The second is that the farmer had us beat on the cost of production. Is one or the other of these theories correct? It must be. It would be like taking the hot end of a poker for me to argue that the farmer is a fool and to have one of his number remark that, even though he was, I went out of business against his competition. Some one else will have to argue that side. I have a different explanation.

In my judgment the difference came about in the general rise in price of labor, grain, and alfalfa. The milk that we produced was like a garment cut out of new cloth—it all cost real money. The farmer’s milk was largely produced from corn stalks, wheat pasture, stubble fields, and draws pastured—material that must either be turned into milk or wasted. It had scarcely any market value. Our methods and our cattle were superior to his in many ways, but not enough to make up the difference in the cost of feed. The common method on the farm is to pasture corn stalks during the winter. It is a very wasteful method of feeding but it requires no labor. The cows gather the corn that was missed in the field and eat the leaves and husks. Few cows may be kept on a farm where such methods are in use, but figuring the stalk of no value, such methods produce the cheapest butter fat in the world. The farmer had us beat on the cost of production. He did not feed grain and forget to figure its value. He fed the grain that the huskers left in the field. It had no value except as it came to the milk pail.

When the Dairy Cow Needs a Friend

At one time I worked on a ranch in western Colorado where a large number of range cattle were wintered. Alfalfa in that community was selling for three dollars a ton, but we fed it to the weaker cattle only. The strong ones could live on sage brush which cost nothing. Sage brush was not a better feed. It was not nearly so good, but the advantages offset the disadvantages. So it was with us. The advantages of the two systems were weighed and ours found wanting.

The average farmer’s cow is a “scrub.” She usually goes dry for three or four months of the year and, even when fresh, gives about half what a developed dairy animal should give. Why do farmers persist in milking “scrubs,” then? Have we not all told them better? I’ll say so! Holsteins and Jerseys are not so rare that farmers do not know what they are. Most farmers have owned a few but have gone back to the old red stand-by. Why? Are we wrong again?

In Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, and all over the east the red cow is disappearing. People there do a great deal more of dairying than we do. Who knows the business better, they who do dairying as a business or we who do not? But arguments are of no use when they go against known facts. The color of the cow is the result of a condition. The red cow has been better suited to a farmer’s conditions and requirements. Dairy cattle can not rough it like beef or dual-purpose cattle. Where the custom is to stable feed and give good care to cattle, dairy breeds naturally take the lead. Where the dairy business is a side issue, and besides giving milk a cow is expected to face cold winds and to withstand periods of semi-starvation, the dairy type is not in it.

The strong, lean, well-developed dairy cows that have never been weakened by starvation or cold.

To understand the cattle business we must understand the fundamental principles upon which the various kinds of cattle are built. Hereford cattle, for instance, are a pure beef type. The beef animal is trained and perfected in the tendency to save everything to itself and to load up with fat and muscle. Some Hereford cows can hardly raise their calves because of the tendency of the mother to save all her nourishment for her own strength and protection. The cow boys on the range rarely think of milking a cow that has lost her calf. The typical beef animals give so little milk that they can go dry at any time even on good grass with little or no injury to themselves. Some dairy cows would die even though sucked by a big husky calf if they were not milked, because they give so much more than the calf could take. The dairy cow is bred and trained for generations to digest all she can and to give it all away, keeping nothing with which to protect herself against hard times. She builds no big muscles with which to climb mountains, or wade through mud and snow drifts. The beef animal if treated like a dairy cow simply gets fat and is finally turned to the butcher. The dairy cow treated like a beef cow is a tragedy to behold. I have seen both Holstein and Jersey steers out on the range where Hereford cattle stay fat and strong and I have heard the cow boys cuss about letting them live, for they were more of a ghost than a reality. Cussed they were by men and God-forsaken, so it would seem. Since even the steers can not protect themselves to live where the Herefords will thrive, what can we ever expect of a producing cow? When she has given all away then goes up against the period of short pasture or semi-starvation, she begins immediately to readjust to meet the new conditions. But the work of generations can not be undone in a life time and she fails to meet the emergency and loses the vitality she naturally possesses.

The red farmer’s cow is often called the dual-purpose animal. She is about half way between the beef and the dairy. She protects herself well but not to the limit as does the Hereford. She produces milk well but not nearly so well as do the highly-bred and highly-developed strictly dairy types. Not one of these three types of cows will do to substitute for any other. Each has a place to fill and each is the best animal in her place. There is nothing more foolish than to substitute the dairy breeds for common cattle before we substitute the dairy man for the farmer or else convert the farmer to the dairyman’s methods in feeding. The corn stalks and waste feed make the cheapest milk and the red cow is the most economical means of converting such feeds into milk, provided we want only a small production with the least possible effort. It takes more labor to prepare feed for animals and feed it to them than it does to let the animals range around over the field and do the best they can. If farm dairying is to be carried on in the future just as it has been in the past, the red cow is the farmer’s best friend and he is not a fool for recognizing her as such.

This is not a pet theory of mine. It is a conclusion that I have had to swallow against my will. The situation has nothing of promise for the future. If we become a dairy state, we will have to put more labor and effort into milk production and do more like they do in other states. The stalks left standing in the field, feeding but a few thick-skinned cattle make the cheapest milk, only in case we figure the by-product feeds as of no value. We could produce a great deal more cattle for beef and for dairy purposes if we utilized what we now waste. If all the corn in our state was shocked this year, think how much good feed would remain after the grain is husked out. Think how many cattle might be wintered. The stalks from one acre of average corn if properly conserved yield nearly enough rough feed for one cow during the entire winter. Fifty acres yield fully enough for forty head of cattle. Of course we should use alfalfa for part of the ration but alfalfa is our cheapest feed that is not a by-product. Grain will be required for cattle that milk, but raising calves and keeping dry stock is as much a part of milk production as anything else. All such cattle can be well-nourished and developed without grain. It will not pay to refine them to such an extent that they can not live on rough feed.

But conditions are changing again. Labor, grain, and alfalfa are all coming down and land is high in price. We will not long be taking only what we can get the easiest. The time is at hand when we are going to imitate the packer who saves all but the squeal. The conditions existing in the eastern states will be found here. I do not know how soon but they are coming. It will be a long time before the specialized producer can compete with the by-product feeder, but the latter is going to save more of what he has and use it to better advantage as soon as he can get labor. Dairy products are going to be in great enough demand to pay the extra labor costs. I do not look for all of the system to be reversed. The farmer’s idea of feeding cattle what could be used for nothing else has been and will still be his salvation. Those of us who produced nothing but milk were wrong, from the standpoint of economy, in my opinion. What I look for now is a combination between the two systems. Cows will be taken care of as well as we cared for our high producers, there will be a change in the methods of caring for feed, but a large part of the feed will be the by-products of other farming operations. What is the use of feeding all green-backs when we can make use of feed that costs nothing? We could produce more milk by using specialized methods altogether but we can make enough without, and it will be cheaper.

But the standard methods, that always have been and still are taught, are altogether intensive. Every one talks of high records. There is not enough talk of low-cost records.

A few years ago there was published in the Nebraska Farmer the cow-testing association records of herds in Lancaster county. Some of these herds yielded a large production and others yielded much less. But the herds that produced less yielded at a higher rate of profit. The difference was in the amount of grain and expensive foods consumed in proportion to the production. During the last few years those who have fed grain and alfalfa as we used to feed, have found it difficult to meet expenses. We used to be taught that, since a cow required so much to maintain her body whether she produced milk or not and only the amount she consumed above that amount could be available for milk production, it was well to feed as much grain as possible without injuring the cow or reducing her flow. But the price of feed must be reckoned, as all admit now. And if grain is too high the larger proportion of our milk must come from the cheaper feeds. At present the grain market looks very bad and intensive dairying would be more profitable now than it has been for a long time.

But the combination, which I think is ideal, will be the best proposition all of the time. In all further discussions in this booklet I refer to dairy breeds exclusively for I believe that the tide is turning and if the red cow and the old methods are still to take the lead, it is a waste of time to study dairying. If farmers wish to increase their milk production and find their way clear to devote more time to their cattle, this discussion may be of some assistance.

Dairy cows have certain definite requirements. One of the most important of these is that they go through no periods in which they do not have all they want to eat of at least good grass or good hay or roughage. If the grass begins to get a little short in the summer, we must not neglect to feed. Another important requirement of the dairy cow is that she be not exposed to hardships such as cold winds and rains. Starvation and storms, these two things above all—we must guard the dairy cow against.

I will describe how I think dairying should be conducted for the most profit on the farm so that the by-products may be utilized to the fullest extent practicable and at the same time the dairy type cattle may be kept producing to good advantage. I am not inventing this system, for I am describing the common practice of the people in the dairy states. In Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota cattle are kept largely on by-products. In the cheap feed lies the profits.

Elsewhere I have described my own methods of handling pasture, the idea of which came from Europe. But as to winter feeding, the whole eastern part of the United States sets a good example. I would want one or two silos, small in diameter but tall. I would want one acre of alfalfa and one acre of pasture for every cow that I expected to keep. If we have a large number of young stock, the pasture would need to be increased. I would fill these silos with corn, grain and all, and use the silage to feed only the cows giving milk. I would use a Smalley feed cutter with snapping attachments and use cut-up dry fodder containing no grain as the principal feed for the dry cows and all young stock on the place. The farmer usually milks only one-half as many cows as he has cattle all together. By using “Flink’s Perfect Silo Seal” to protect the silage it may be fed all summer whenever needed without waste. What stalks remain to be pastured may be pastured by the milk cows and so may wheat be pastured during good weather. I would depend upon by-product feed for dry cattle and for part of the milk cow’s ration. The amount of grain that is in corn silage is never too much for any cow that is giving milk, but silage, corn and all, is too expensive for cattle that are not milking.

By such methods the eastern farmer easily keeps at least twice the number of cattle that the average farmer here is now keeping, and still he takes but little more of his land away from other farming operations. The intensive dairyman uses all that he raises for his cows and usually buys some besides. The by-product farmer in Nebraska has been in the habit of setting aside hardly any acreage for the use of his cattle. But the combination is positively a success and would have long ago been more in use in Nebraska had not the labor situation presented difficulties almost impossible to overcome. My farm is small and borders on the very edge of the city. Intensive dairying is the only thing practical for me even though I can not expect to produce as cheaply as farmers differently situated. I am re-stocking the farm this year.