82 LIVESTOCK ON THE FARM 



CLASSIFICATION OF FEEDS 



All feeds are good in their place but at the same time all 

 feeds may be bad when improperly used. The better the 

 feed the more easily it may be misused. 



Feeds may be misused by feeding too much roughage to 

 animals primarily adapted to concentrates, by feeding too 

 much concentrate to ruminants, or by feeding too much or 

 too little protein or of the other nutrients including mineral 

 matter and water. 



The different classes of feeds are roughages, concentrates, 

 green feeds, dry feeds, and liquid feeds. The differences 

 indicated by this classification are physical and do not take 

 into consideration the chemical differences given previously, 

 namely, protein, carbohydrate, fat, and mineral matter. Each 

 one of the classes, according to the physical characteristics 

 contains several different feeds or kinds of feeds under the 

 chemical classification. 



Roughages. Roughages are feeds like corn stover, corn 

 silage, hay, straw, grass, etc. They are bulky and more or 

 less difficult of digestion. They are bulky because they con- 

 tain a good deal of undigestible matter or water. They are 

 hard to digest because they contain much woody substance 

 called crude fiber. 



The hays, including alfalfa, the clovers, vetches, peas, 

 beans, etc., are protein roughages. They should be used as 

 largely as possible to furnish protein which, as shown pre- 

 viously, is the material needed for growth. Protein is the 

 most expensive part of a ration and can be furnished most 

 economically in the form of roughages grown on the farm. 

 These feeds, or some of them, should be used with all young 

 and growing animals such as colts, calves, lambs, and pigs. 

 They should also be used as a large part of the roughage in 

 rations for cattle, especially dairy cattle, and also for sheep. 

 Wheat bran as a commercial feed is also a protein roughage. 



Concentrates. The grains and seeds are classed as concen- 

 trates or concentrate feeds. They are feeds that are largely 

 digestible and do not contain large quantities of water. They 

 are the expensive feeds of the farm but must be fed to animals 



