SECTION XXV. 



HOW TO IMPROVE AND REDUCE THE COST OF RATIONS. 1 



A Common Ration. A herd of milch cows is receiving the 

 following ration per day of 24 hours, per 1,000 Ibs. live weight; 

 5 Ibs. of cotton-seed meal, 3 Ibs. of wheat bran, 10 Ibs. of red 

 clover hay (medium) and 15 Ibs. of corn stover. Let us figure 

 this ration and find out if it is properly balanced for the herd 

 of dairy cows. Turn to Table I and find that the following 

 amounts of digestible nutrients are present in 100 Ibs. of each 

 feed stuff. 



Then as 5 Ibs. of cotton-seed meal are in the ration, we mul- 

 tiply the amounts of dry matter, digestible protein, digestible 

 carbohydrates and digestible fat as given above for cotton-seed 

 meal, by 5. Or 



5 X 0.918 = 4.590 Ibs. of dry matter in 5 Ibs. of cotton-seed 

 meal. 



5 X 0.372 = i. 860 Ibs. of digestible protein in 5 Ibs. of cotton- 

 seed meal. 



5 X 0.169 = 0.845 lbs - of digestible carbohydrates in 5 Ibs. 

 of cotton-seed meal. 



5 X 0.122 = 0.610 Ibs. of digestible fat in 5 Ibs. of cotton- 

 seed meal. 



In the same way we compute the digestible nutrients in the 

 wheat bran, red clover hay and corn stover. 



1 Adapted from Halligan's Fundamentals of Agriculture. 



