Maintamcmce Bequirements of Bovines 297 



demonstrated that mere maintenance demands a com- 

 paratively small amount of protein and so this ration 

 may have a wide nutritive ratio such as pertains to the 

 nutrients of the more common farm products. 



MAINTENANCE FOOD FOR BOVINES 



Experiments having for their object a determination 

 of the daily quantity of nutrients necessary to simply 

 maintain animals of this class were conducted by Hen- 

 neberg and Stohman with oxen as long ago as 1858. A 

 number of rations were fed and the conclusions which 

 were reached were based upon the amount of food 

 digested, the gain or loss of nitrogenous tissue by the 

 animals and their weights and general appearance. The 

 average daily quantities of digestible nutrients which 

 appeared to be sufficient to maintain a 1,000 -pound ox 

 without growth or loss was approximately. 8. 2 pounds, 

 of which .53 pound was protein, the whole having an 

 energy or heat value of not far from 15,000 Calories. 

 Because of the high temperature of the stalls used in 

 the above-named experiments, Wolff estimated later 

 that for winter feeding the standard should be 8.9 

 pounds of digestible nutrients, of which .7 pound 

 should be protein, the energy value being approximately 

 16,000 Calories, and even until now Wolff's figures are 

 published as the standard maintenance ration. 



It is certainly time that this standard should be 

 revised. The earlier experiments on which it was 

 based furnished data insufficient for accurate con- 

 clusions, for the only means of judging whether the 



