88 



PRINCIPLES OF FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



Quantities of Nitrogen and Ash Constituents Voided by Animals or Obtained in 



Animal Products 



We note that milch cows void in the total excrement about 75 

 per cent of the nitrogen contained in the feed and about 90 per cent 

 of the ash constituents. Young growing animals give somewhat 

 similar quantities, while fattening animals void about 90 per cent 

 of nitrogen and 96 per cent of the ash materials in the liquid and 

 solid excrement. 3 Considering the relation between the different 

 classes of farm animals on most stock farms, young and old, milk- 

 producing and fattening animals, etc., we may assume that at least 

 80 per cent of the entire manurial value of the feeding stuffs fed 

 on the farm will be voided in the solid or liquid manure of the ani- 

 mals and will contribute to maintain the fertility of the land when 

 the manure is applied thereon. The direct value of feeding stuffs 

 for fertilizer purposes is, therefore, obtained by taking 80 per cent 

 of the total fertilizer value calculated from Table V in the Appendix. 



When a farmer sells a ton of alfalfa hay, he sells fertilizer 

 materials that if purchased in the form of common fertilizers would 

 cost him over $8. He sells the amounts of fertilizers off his land in 

 every ton of straw, hay, and other crops, as shown in the table. If 

 he sells 2000 pounds of milk (232 gallons), $1.97 worth of fertility 

 leaves the farm with it ; with a ton of butter, 38 cents ; with a ton of 

 beef, $9.06 ; with a ton of pork, $5.93, etc. According to Burkett, 

 a farmer selling hay sells, in the form of fertilizer value, one-half 

 as much as he receives ; if he sells pork, he receives twenty times as 

 much for it as the value of the fertilizers contained in it; if milk, 

 forty times, and if butter, one thousand times. 4 



These figures show plainly that, so far as maintenance of the 

 fertility of the land goes, it is a better plan for a farmer to sell 



3 Wisconsin Report 13, p. 270 et seq. 

 * " Feeding Farm Animals/' p. 311. 



