656 



EXPERIMENT STATION liECOKD. 



weighing the foods and saiiiiiliii,^ tlit'iu Ibr analysis, and collecting 

 statistics as to the breed, age, iieiiid of lactation, etc., of the cows. As 

 soon as the analyses of the feeding stuffs could be made the rations 

 ■were calculated and in 3 cases other rations were suggested. The feed 

 was gradually changed to the suggested ration, and after 4 weeks from 

 the close of the first test another 12 days' test was made. The sum- 

 mary of the results of these 2 tests at the 3 farms is given in the fol- 

 lowing tables, test No. 1 indicating the original ration and No. 2 the 

 suggested ration in each case: 



Siimniari/ of (hiihi rations fed and dailij milk and butler yield from tUre-c herds with a 

 wide and a narrower ration. 



' Butter a.ssiiiued to contain 85 per cent butter fat. 



"At the time of the second test in each case the cows were 6 weeks further along 

 in the period of lactation, and would iu consequence have naturally reduced their 

 milk flow and butter yield. . . . 



•' In the case of herd A, instead of a falling off in milk flow there was an average 

 daily increase of seven tenths of a pound iuthe test while they were fed the narrow 

 ration over what it ha<l been'with the wide ration 6 weeks earlier. Tliere was prac- 

 tically no change in milk flow in the case of the two other herds. V.'ith all three 

 herds there was a slight increase in butter yield with the narrow ration in the 

 second test. The total size of the ration as measured by the fuel value averaged 

 less iu the second test than in the flrst. The i»roteiu was increased aud the carbo- 

 hydrates and fats were decreased in the second test. 



"In these cases both milk flow and butter yield were so much aflected by q, 

 change from a wide to a narrow ration that instead of a shrinlcage in production, 

 as would lutturally follow from advancement in period of lactation, the animals 

 more than held their own. ... 



"The cost of milk and butter production from the food alone was much less on 

 the narrower ration, even when the cows were 6 weeks further advanced in lactation 

 than earlier on the wide ration. So far as these tests may be taken as an indication, 

 narrow rations may be fed more profitably than wide." 



The rations of the 1(5 herds studied i^reviously are arranged accord- 

 ing to nutritive ratio and amount of protein in the ration. A com- 

 j)arison of these data with the yields of milk and butter develops the 

 following facts: 



