18 Bulletin 81 



4. What happens if standards are disregarded in feeding ? 



5. How does one go to work to make use of a standard and to form- 

 ulate a ration ? 



These questions may be answered as follows : 



1. Method of statement. — The standards are expressed in terms of pro- 

 tein, carbohydrates and ether extract instead of hay, corn fodder and bran 

 in order to broaden their application. If stated as so many pounds of hay, 

 silage, corn and cottonseed meals, it would be difficult for the feeder who 

 had oat straw, corn stalks, clover rowen, bran and gluten meal to know 

 how to make up his ration. Now, however, it is a matter of the simplest 

 figuring to construct an approximation to any standard. 



2. Choice of standard. — Which standard to choose, for the cow for in- 

 stance, is not a matter which should be settled dogmatically. Choice 

 should be governed by many conditions which vary from time to time and 

 from place to place, notably those connected with market prices for feeds 

 and product. The feeder's judgment should likewise be an important fac- 

 tor. This has been already pointed out. It is the writer's opinion that 

 given good cows, a good market for the product, not too high prices for 

 concentrated byproducts, and an opportunity to grow fairly abundant sup- 

 plies of leguminous crops, it will be found as a rule advisable to follow 

 fairly closely the Wolff-Lehmann or the Connecticut formulas. 



It should be remarked, however, that in most parts of the United 

 States carbohydrates are abundant and cheap and protein relatively scarce 

 and costly. This condition is reflected in the average feeding practice as 

 shown by the Wisconsin and Connecticut investigations ; and, as has been 

 remarked hitherto, conditions may arise which may make the wider ration 

 the more practicable and profitable. 



The reasons influencing the writer's opinion — which it may be remarked 

 is in general accord with that of many if not most students of this matter — 

 are that protein more than any other one nutrient seems to be a milk stim- 

 ulant and to be a measure of milk production ; that its reasonably liberal 

 use means a better quality of manure ; that the gradation of the food sup- 

 ply, and particularly that of the protein, primarily in accordance with the 

 milk yield, and secondarily according to live weight, instead of solely by 

 the latter, seems sensible ; and that with good cows and a good market, a 

 maximum yield, with due regard to health, is usually the cheapest. 



S. Are standards of use ? — Is it worth while to make choice and use of 

 standards when they are hedged about by so many limitations and when 

 there are so many men of many minds? Emphatically, yes. Standards 

 vary, judgments differ, cows, fodders and feeds are of all sorts and descrip- 

 tions ; yet better results would generally follow the adoption by most feed- 

 ers of any standard, not only because of the change but because of the closer 

 attention of the owner to his cattle, their care and their feeding. A German 



