COST OF NUTRIENTS 123 



Here we find that a pound of digestible nutrients 

 is most costly in oats and wheat bran ; and cheapest 

 in gluten, corn, and cottonseed meal. 



The various kinds of feeding stuffs can be de- 

 termined in this manner by obtaining the market 

 prices and dividing these prices by the quantities 

 of total digestible nutrients of the respective feed- 

 ing materials. Taking these facts in consideration, 

 with the cost of a pound of protein in each, and then 

 the purposes for which the feed is given, it is possi- 

 ble to make a more intelligible selection than on the 

 basis of cost only. If dairy cows are to be fed, then 

 clearly gluten or cottonseed meal would be chosen, 

 and particularly would this be true if grass hays, 

 silage and corn stover were at hand in abundance. 



Using Judgment in Getting Protein. In purchas- 

 ing protein judgment must be exercised in selecting 

 the carrier of it. For instance, corn is cheaper than 

 bran on the basis of total digestible nutrients, but 

 if for the dairy, bran should be purchased rather than 

 corn, because the bran contains nearly twice the 

 amount of protein. Cottonseed meal contains just 

 about five times the quantity of digestible protein 

 that corn does. If the two could be purchased at the 

 same price per pound of digestible nutrients, cotton- 

 seed meal would be many times more valuable than 

 corn, because of the very much larger quantity of 

 protein. 



Roughage Materials should be as carefully 

 selected as the concentrates. It is often advisable to 

 sell one kind of feeding stuff and purchase one or 

 more kinds in exchange. It is usually economy to 



