FAKM ANIMALS 63 



FEEDING 



The subject of feeding in connection witli farm animals is 

 one of great importance and will be discussed more in detail 

 later in connection with the different classes of animals. At 

 this point, however, a few general principles are taken up, 

 such as apply to all animals under all conditions. 



Maintenance. — Every living animal must eat a certain 

 amount of food for maintenance. The animal machine must 

 be kept running and the body temperature must be kept up. 

 This takes feed and before the animal can do work, make meat, 

 milk- or wool, it must have enough feed for maintenance. Of 

 course, the animal can do these things for a short time upon 

 stored-up fat and from the material of which its body is made, 

 but that is bad econom3^ The animal machine has an ad- 

 vantage over the mechanical machine like the steam engine. 

 The former can do work by using materials of its own body 

 while the latter cannot. 



The amount of food an animal requires for maintenance may 

 vary from about 20 per cent, of what it eats to the whole 

 amount. The mature animal uses everything it eats for 

 maintenance and work while the growing animal uses part of 

 its food for growth. The j^oung animals, in order that the}- 

 ma}^ grow, must have enough food to supplj^ what is needed 

 for maintenance and something additional for growth. If 

 young animals are required to work, they must either eat more 

 than enough for mere maintenance or grow less rapidly. 



What would one think of a livestock farmer who fed his 

 animals only enough for maintenance. Yet many a farmer 

 carries his animals through the winter in a way that leaves 

 them lighter in the spring than they were in the fall. He 

 could not do worse if he hired a threshing machine in the spring 

 and kept it running all summer in order to do his threshing 

 in the fall. It is worse, indeed, because an animal under such 

 conditions would become stunted and might never recover 

 the full use of its bodily functions. At any rate, it would take 

 a long time to bring the animal back into condition so that 

 it could make gains or do work. 



The rule then should be to feed animals as much as they can 

 use to good advantage, because the more they eat the smaller 



