142 



FEEDS AND FEEDING 



has plenty of the following farm-grown grains: Shelled corn, worth 56 

 cents a bushel on the farm; oats, worth 35 cents a bushel; and barley, 

 worth 45 cents a bushel. He wishes to feed to his herd the grain which is 

 cheapest, considering its feeding value, and sell that which is highest 

 priced. It will cost $2 a ton to grind these grains, as should always be 

 done for dairy cows. (656) This will bring the farm price of ground 

 corn to $22 a ton; ground oats, $23.88 a ton; and ground barley, $24.92 

 a ton. This farmer has his farm laid out in well-planned crop rotations 

 and consequently has plenty of red clover hay and corn silage for his 

 herd, and also some timothy hay. On the farm unbaled clover hay is 

 worth $14 a ton and timothy hay $15 a ton. The cost of raising the 

 corn silage has been not over $4.50 a ton, so this value is taken, since 

 silage has no recognized market value, due to the fact that it is not 

 commonly bought and sold. 



The following feeds can be purchased on the local market: Hominy 

 feed at $25 a ton, corn and oat feed at $24, wheat bran at $25, gluten 

 feed at $30, choice cottonseed meal at $35, old-process linseed meal at 

 $35, dried beet pulp at $27, and alfalfa meal at $25 a ton. Limited 

 amounts of these feeds can be hauled home on return trips from town 

 without any material additional expense. 



To find which of these feeds are actually the most economical for this 

 dairyman under his own conditions, let us arrange in tabular form the 

 data from Appendix Table III for the different feeds, and compute the 

 cost per pound of digestible crude protein and the cost of 1 Ib. of total 

 digestible nutrients in each. 



Comparison of the economy of various feeds at the prices stated 



