2GG 



HOUSE-FEEDING OF CATTLE 



All foods contain cellulose and other non-nutritive 

 material, therefore no ordinary food will approach the nutri- 

 tive standard without the non-nutritive matter being deducted. 

 This, however, should not affect the "nutritive ratio" which 

 indicates if the food may be employed to its best economic 

 advantage. 



In the majority of vegetable foods there is a marked 

 deficiency in proteid and fat with a corresponding excess of 

 carbohydrates. To illustrate this by figures compare Wolffs 

 average standard with the following constituents of common 

 foods and their nutritive ratios (market value per ton, 5) : 



If we assume all the four commodities to have the same 

 market value we may arrive at the comparative food value by 

 multiplying the fat by 2-268, adding it to the carbohydrates, 

 and dividing 5 by half the result, as this will give the 

 carbohydrate unit value. If we further divide 5 by the 

 figure representing half of the proteid we get the proteid unit 

 value ; the sum of the two will give the comparative food 

 cost per unit. Thus we arrive at the following food unit cost 

 of the four materials under consideration : 



It is possible to make up much of the shortage of proteid and 

 fat by compounding cotton-seed meal (containing 42 per cent, 

 of proteid), linseed meal (32 per cent), and bran, maize germs, 



1 See pp. 274 and 308. 



