state Dairy Association. 259 



Palatability is essential in a ration because unless the flavor and 

 condition of the ration is pleasing to the appetite of the cow 

 she will not consume sufficient for profitable work. Palatability 

 also aids digestion by stimulating the flow of saliva and other di- 

 gestive juices. We find that individuals in the herd differ in 

 their likes and dislikes for foods. These individual peculiarities 

 in eating should be recognized and catered to by the feeder. The 

 cows should be fed as individuals and not as a herd. 



Variety, like palatability, increases the consumption of food, 

 ?nd therefore the flow of milk is increased. In fact variety 

 makes a ration more palatable. Animals will always do better 

 when a variety of feeds is furnished than when confined to one 

 kind of grain throughout the season. 



The cost of production must always be considered. The 

 profit in dairying results from the difference between cost of pro- 

 duction and selling price of milk or butter. 



While it is always important to secure as high a price as pos- 

 sible for your milk and butter, it is still more important to strive 

 to reduce the cost of production without lowering the grade of 

 your product. This can be done by reducing the cost or increas- 

 ing the efficiency of your ration. 



In determining the best ration to use for economical produc- 

 tion of milk and butter we must consider both the composition and 

 the cost of the feeds to be used. It is not always the feed that 

 costs least that will produce milk and butter at least cost. It is 

 not an act of economy to feed corn and cob meal as the only grain 

 with corn silage and corn stover as roughage simply because corn 

 and cob meal cost only 40 cents per bushel when wheat bran costs 

 S1.20 per 100 pounds. The straight corn ration will not produce 

 enough milk to make dairying profitable nor will it even nourish 

 the body properly; while the addition of wheat bran or cotton- 

 seed meal to the ration, although it increases the cost of feed per 

 day, will increase the flow of milk enough to more than pay for the 

 extra cost of feed. 



The economy of a ration depends, therefore, not upon the 

 actual cost of feed per day, but upon the cost of producing a gal- 

 lon of milk or a pound of butter. 



To illustrate this point, let us consider the value of the Mis- 

 souri ration of corn and timothy as compared to a ration in which 

 some protein feed is used as a supplement to corn. 



Here is a dairyman who has raised timothy hay and corn thi= 

 year and thinks he cannot afford to use any other feeds because 



