30 Bulletin 81 



In general it may be said of roughages that while the mainstay of 

 farm crops for cattle feeding must be of class 1, yet class 2 should be 

 grown and used to the limit of profit. 



Of concentrates it may be said that class 1 should never be bought ; 

 that some in class 2 are well worth growing, but their purchase for feed- 

 ing cows is of doubtful advisability ; that classes 3, 4 and 5 all contain 

 feeds which are often well worth purchasing, and that in general 5 is more 

 desirable than 4 and 4 more so than 3. 



2. RATION MAKING 



What combinations may be made of roughages and concentrates for 

 the sundry feeding operations of the farm ? Their number is legion. They 

 vary with differences in farms, localities, animals, and their appetites; and 

 farm and market supplies vary. It were wise for the feeder who desires in- 

 formation on this point to consult some good book on feeding. As to dairy 

 feeding, however, a few general statements may be made. Nearly or quite 

 two-thirds of the total dry matter of a ration should be given in roughages. 

 Succulent food — silage, pasture feeding, soiling crops, roots — is to be pre- 

 ferred for part of the ration to all dry feed. In making up a grain ration, 

 overfeeding with the highly concentrated feeds should be avoided. Sick- 

 ness and deteriorated product may, and waste of food surely will, ensue. 

 While phenomenal cows have handled 12 or 15 pounds of cottonseed meal 

 a day, but few cows can safely take more than 3 pounds, and less than this 

 is safer. Err at first by using too little rather than by using too much cot- 

 tonseed and gluten meals. 



In combining roughages and concentrates for the production of bal- 

 anced rations, much must be left to judgment. In feeding cows from one- 

 fourth to one-third of the coarse fodder may be made up of straw. More 

 than 15 pounds roots daily, if such be fed at all, are inadvisable. Thirty- 

 five pounds of silage daily is usually a maximum. Not more than one-half 

 of the dry matter of the roughage should be of leguminous origin. As a 

 broad and general rule from 1 to 1.7 pounds of digestible protein should be 

 furnished by the roughage, the remainder by the grain. 



Protein requirements may be met and in some cases more than met by 

 feeding 6 to 8 pounds daily of a ration containing one part each of any of 

 the concentrates mentioned on the preceding page in classes 2, 4 and 5, or 

 in classes 3, 4 and 5, or in 2 and 5. or one part of any mentioned in class 5 

 combined with one and one-half parts of any mentioned in class 3. There 

 is much range of choice which will be governed by sundry considerations 

 already mentioned. 



3. FERTILIZING VALUE OF FODDERS AND FEEDS 



The animal food content of a fodder or feed is the prime consideration in 

 stock feeding. If, however, the latter is considered in its true relationship to 

 the entire farm enterprise, as an integral part thereof and not as a matter by 



