CORNELL READING-LESSON FOR FARMERS. 



Issued hy the College of Agriculture^ Cornell Univer- 

 sity^ Ithaca, J^. Y., in the tnonths of November, 

 Decemher, January, Fehruary and March. 



Entered at the Post Office at Ithaca, N. Y., as second-class matter under 



act of July 16, 1894. 



No. 9. February, 1900. Sample Rations 



for Milch Cows. 



BY LEROY ANDERSON. 



Ill Lesson !No. 8 we learned that a daily ration for a milch cow 

 (weighing 1,000 lbs.) should contain about 2-i lbs. of dry matter, of 

 which the 2.5 lbs. should be digestible protein or the muscle-making 

 food which the cow can use, and 13.4 lbs. digestible carbohydrates 

 and fat. The object of Lesson No. 9 is to show how this " balanced 

 ration " can be made from the many kinds of feed-stuffs which the 

 farmer can raise or buy. 



Ration No. 1. An Ideal Ration. 



Let us lirst make a sample ration which may be taken as a type 

 of what a milk ration should be. Suppose we have on hand corn 

 silage, clover hay, buckwheat middlings, wheat bran, corn meal and 

 cottonseed meal. The first thing to do is to guess, or estimate, liow 

 many pounds of each food the cow will relish in a day. The longer 

 our experience in stock-feeding, the closer will be our guess as to 

 the actual needs of the cow. Next we should find in Bull. No. 154 

 (to be had for the asking) the amount of dry matter, protein and 

 carbohydrates and fat in the quantity of each food which we think 

 the cow will eat. From these figures we can work out the nutritive 

 ratio of our ration. 



It has been the experience of many stock-feeders that a cow will 

 usually eat and relish about 40 lbs. of corn silage per day. On 

 page 143 of Bull. 154, this amount of silage is said to contain 8.4 

 36 561 



