272 STATE BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



and of the grain feed and by-products was left entirely to the judgment 

 of the man who fed the cows and who adjusted the quantity to the 

 milk yield and the condition of the bowels. 



It is interesting to note how nearly the daily ration thus prepared 

 for a dairy herd by an expert feeder compares with the standard pro- 

 posed in Germany or recommended by Prof. Woll. 



In the tables that follow, there is recorded the average daily ration 

 for several cows of the herd. The records of such cows only are used 

 for this table as were not undergoing experiments which involved sudden 

 or unusual changes of diet. The average daily ration is given for the 

 month indicated. In nearly every case silage formed the basis of that 

 ration. To obtain the daily ration for the month the amount of silage 

 consumed during the month was divided by the number of days in 

 the month. It would naturally be expected that a large cow would 

 eat more than a small one, and it would hardly be fair to compare 

 the work of different cows on the basis of the total amount of feed 

 consumed per day. For that reason the table gives not the average 

 amount of silage consumed per day, but the average amount of silage 

 consumed per day per thousand pounds live weight. In the same way the 

 amount of mangolds or hay or grain set down in the table is deter- 

 mined; first all that the cow ate of the given material in the month 

 is found by adding together the amounts fed daily and the sum is 

 divided by the number of days in the month and this quotient by the 

 weight of the cow, expressed in thousand pounds or decimals of a thou- 

 sand pounds, so that the amount set down in the table represents the 

 average daily ration per thousand pounds live weight for the given 

 month. Necessarily, the grain ration varied from month to month in 

 composition and recalculation was necessary even when the grain ration 

 for two succeeding months was identical in amount. 



With both the amount and composition of each component of the 

 ration known it was easy to calculate the dry matter, protein, carbo- 

 hydrates and fat consumed daily. 



There is, then, in the table, the actual amount of dry matter, of 

 digestible protein, digestible carbohydrates and digestible fat in the 

 average daily ration per thousand pounds live weight of the cows men- 

 tioned, but unless some indication was given of the efficiency of the 

 ration, this data would not be sufficient to form a basis of an opinion as 

 to its merits. The effect of the ration is measured by the amount of 

 butter fat yielded daily and the changes in live weight. The amount of 

 butter fat secreted by a cow varies greatly from month to month.' It 

 is almost invariably greater soon after the birth of her calf and gradu- 

 ally decreases as her milking period progresses. After the column giv- 

 ing the average daily fat yield for the month, the figure in the next 

 column indicates the number of the particular month in the milking 

 period. In the next column is given the average weight of the cow for 

 the month. 



To illustrate, the first name on the list of the smaller cows is Aida II. 

 The first month for which her work is recorded is December, 1895. Her 

 average daily ration per thousand pounds live tceight for the month was 

 .".<) pounds of silage, 15 pounds of mangolds. 2 pounds of hay and 1!) 



