EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 



227 



the feeding rations used in over a hundred dairies scattered from the 

 Pacific to the Atlantic ocean. After a study of the results, he wrote 

 as follows: (Wis. Bulletin 38, page J/G.) 



"Combining? all of the above 128 rations which have been fed by suc- 

 cessful dairy farmers and breeders in the various j)arts of our con- 

 tinent we have the following average American ration, as it may be 

 called, as against the rations published by German exijerimenters, and 

 heretofore largely used in this country." 



AMERICAN STANDARD RATION FOR DAIRY COWS. 



''This ration is practically the same as the one published in Bulletin 

 33 and in our nth report; it is believed that it will be found correct 

 for our American conditions, except perhaps for those of the Rocky 

 Mountains and the Pacific States, While local conditions or the busi- 

 ness methods of farming in some places may make a ration desirable 

 which contains more protein than this and has a narrower nutritive 

 ratio as a consequence, we feel confident that in the large majority 

 of cases its ado])tion will give satisfactory results, and that it is pre- 

 ferable to the German standard ration so long placed before our stock 

 feeders as the ideal one, the nutritive ratio of which is 1 : 5,4. It is 

 the result of American feeding experience; the majority of our most 

 successful dairymen feed in the way indicatd by the ration and we 

 shall not go far amiss if we follow their example." 



THE M. A. C, STANDARD RATION. 



The records of the feeding and milk yields of the dairy herd at the 

 College may be studied in reference to the average amount of dry mat- 

 ter, protein, carbohydrates and fat consumed per thousand pound live 

 weight per cow per day, and thus some light may be thrown on the 

 question of a standard ration for dairy cows suitable to Michigan 

 conditions. The College herd has been managed not differently from 

 other herds in the State except that the feed and milk yield have been 

 weighed. It must be remembered in considering these records that to 

 obtain them, it has been necessary to weigh all the coarse fodder, all 

 the grain, and in fact everything eaten by each cow, to set down the 

 dates of the birth of the calves, the weights of the cow at weekly in- 

 tervals, and the weights of each mess of milk and its per cent of fat as 

 shown by the Babcock test. This has involved an immense amount of 

 labor, but it has been necessary to make the results accurate and trust- 

 worthy. The weights and other data concerning the relation of the 



