48 FARM CROPS 



roughages, such as clover, cowpeas and alfalfa, and 

 little protein will need to be bought. This is 

 economical and practical feeding. It is good farm- 

 ing. 



USING JUDGMENT IN GETTING PROTEIN 



In purchasing protein, judgment must be exer- 

 cised in selecting the carrier of it. For instance, 

 corn is slightly 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 

 that corn does. Cottonseed meal contains just 

 about five times as much digestible protein as corn, 

 and if the two could be purchased at the same 

 price for each 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 sell corn and oats and make an outright purchase 

 of cottonseed meal, gluten meal and bran. Often one 

 can sell his roughage materials to good advantage 

 and secure others that contain more of the con- 

 stituents desired, and in so doing the amount of 

 concentrated foods can be cut down. 



If the feeder uses corn stover and timothy hay, 

 he will necessarily be forced to balance his rations 

 with concentrated materials. On the other hand, 

 if he uses cowpea hay, alfalfa or clover hay in main 

 for roughage, the necessary grain material will be 



