FEEDING STANDARDS: ORIGIN AND USE 



89 



tions," or, in other words, it is impossible to feed an animal 

 in common practice to the exact fraction of a pound, and 

 give neither too little nor too much food for body require- 

 ments. So they adopted the plan of feeding within minimum 

 and maximum quantities of dry matter, digestible crude pro- 

 tein and total digestible nutrients. In explanation of their 

 modified form of the Wolff-Lehmann standards, the authors 



write as follows:* 



"Since progressive feeders throughout the country now appreciate 

 the significance of the nutritive ratio of a ration, the approximate upper 

 and lower advisable limits of nutritive ratios for the different classes 

 have been stated. To correspond with these standards, Appendix 

 Table III contains a column showing the total digestible nutrients 

 furnished in 100 pounds of each feed. Likewise so that one may see at a 

 glance what feeds are high and which are low in protein, compared with 

 carbohydrates and fat, the nutritive ratio for each food has been comput- 

 ed and given in the table. With these aids it is hoped that the 

 standards presented may be of real assistance to students and feeders 

 who desire to compute rations substantially in accordance with the 

 Wolff-Lehmann method, while recognizing the results of later investi- 

 gations in animal feeding." 



The modified form of the WolfT-Lehmann standard, as 

 applied to horses, compared with the table previously given 

 in this chapter, is as follows: 



Feeding standards for horses, l,000lbs. live weight, modified Wolff-Lehmann. 



By this we learn that a horse at medium work requires 

 from 16 to 24 pounds of dry matter, from 1.4 to 1.7 pounds 

 of protein, and from 12.8 to 15.6 pounds of digestible nutri- 

 ents, with a nutritive ratio of 7.8 to 8.3. Compared with 

 the old standards, we see that this ration provides a saving 

 in protein, but allows for an increased use of total nutrients, 

 with a somewhat wider nutritive ratio. 



The practical application of Wolff-Lehmann feeding stand- 

 ards has been recognized on thousands of farms in America, 



*Feeds and Feeding, 1917. 



