230 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



For beef cattle, they make an excellent adjunct to corn, 

 barley or rye, rather than a substitute for these, when 

 ground and mixed with one or more of the foods named. 

 The hulls as in the case of bran add so much to the bulk 

 that the juices of the stomach more readily penetrate the 

 meal thus fed. When oats are not too high, they may con- 

 stitute from one-half to one-fourth of the entire grain fed, 

 more being given during the early stages of fattening and 

 less later. 



For cows in milk, oats are at least as valuable as bran, 

 pound for pound. If there is a difference, ground oats is 

 probably the superior. The extent to which they may be 

 fed to cows in milk depends in a considerable degree on 

 market values. They may be made to constitute the whole 

 of the grain fed or any part of it. Even when oats are 

 somewhat more expensive than corn, it will be found profit- 

 able to combine them with corn in the ration. With such 

 fodders as clover hay and corn stover fed in conjunction, 

 wheat bran, ground oats and ground corn, barley, or rye, 

 fed in about equal parts by weight, make an excellent grain 

 ration. 



For sheep, oats make a most excellent grain food. 

 There is probably no better grain food on which to start 

 young lambs than ground oats with the hulls sifted out. 

 Even unsifted, they serve the purpose reasonably well, and 

 later it is not necessary even to grind them. For milk-lambs 

 that are being fattened, oats, cracked corn and oil cake in 

 the nut form or as meal, in the proportions of 2, 2 and i 

 parts by weight, make a suitable grain ration. To lambs 

 that are being fattened, oats, cracked corn and oil cake in 

 food, in quantity from one-fourth of a pound upward daily, 

 or they may furnish the bulk of the grain given, the other 

 part consisting of wheat, rye, barley, corn or peas, or of a 

 mixture of these. To breeding ewes, they may be similarly 

 fed up to the amount of one pound per day, before the 

 lambing season, and practically without stint, subsequently, 

 as long as the ewes are on dry feed. To sheep that are 



