250 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



FEEDING DAIRY COWS. 



BY C. D. SMITH. 



Bulletin 149. — Farm Department. 



SUMMARY. 



It is not the purpose of this bulletin to present a text-book on 

 the different phases of cow feeding, nor to bring together the results 

 of the work of other Stations on the points touched upon. But, after 

 illustrating the meaning of the terms which it is necessary to use in 

 describing feeding experiments, to outline the method of calculating 

 rations. A table is presented giving the amount of dry matter and of 

 each of the digestible nutrients, protein, carbohydrates and fat in many 

 of the common cattle foods. This table is based upon the analyses re- 

 ported by Jenkins and Winton, combined with the American digestion 

 coefficients. Many of the analyses were made by the chemical department 

 of this Station. 



Following the computation of rations, there is given a summation of 

 the results of the feeding of the College herd for the last three years in 

 relation to the amount of dry matter and of digestible nutrients consumed 

 per day, per thousand pounds live weight, by good dairy cows in full milk 

 or in the very latest stages of the period of lactation. The publication of 

 Armby's Manual of Cattle Feeding in 1881 called the attention of Amer- 

 ican cattle feeders to the ration recommended by Prof. Wolff and since 

 known as the German standard ration. The publication of Bulletin 38, 

 of the Wisconsin Experiment Station showed to the keepers of dairy cows 

 that the consensus of opinion of the most progressive dairymen was in 

 favor of a smaller amount of protein per day than had been suggested by 

 Wolff. It was unfortunate that this American standard ration, so called, 

 had to be based on amounts of feeding stuffs whose weight was often 

 assumed rather than measured. The fact that for three winters the feed 

 of each cow had been carefully weighed and not infrequently analyzed, 

 places in the hands of this Station, a large amount of data available as 

 evidence in formulating the average ration for a dairy cow. The quantity 

 fed per day of the different factors in the ration was regulated by the 

 judgment of an expert feeder, and the answer which the cows have re- 

 turned to the question of how much they can best utilize per day cannot 

 fail to be significant. This answer is that a thousand pound cow, in the 

 fourth month after calving, while yielding on the average 1.21 pounds of fat 



