268 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



For cattle being fattened, bran may be fed with much 

 benefit as a part of the ration from- the beginning to the end 

 of the feeding period when it is not too costly, but it should 

 be used in very gradually decreasing proportions. When 

 sufficiently cheap, it may form as much as one-half the grain 

 ration by weight, in the first stages of fattening. By the 

 middle of the period, it should seldom form more than one- 

 third of the ration and even a less proportion is preferable. 

 By the end of the fattening period, only a small amount is 

 needed, and when oil meal is fed, none at all. In forced feed- 

 ing with strong concentrates as corn, bran so lightens the 

 mass in the stomach that digestive disturbances are warded 

 off, but when oats form a considerable proportion of the 

 food fed, it is not needed except in so far as it exerts a 

 wholesome influence on the digestive tract. Bran has been 

 used with considerable success in fattening animals along 

 with good prairie hay when the bran was low in price. 



For cows in milk, wheat bran is specially well adapted 

 since it furnishes abundantly protein and ash and also a 

 fair amount of starchy matter. Moreover, its bulky char- 

 acter, as in fattening cattle, tends to make more porous the 

 mass of the heavy concentrates when mixed with them. 

 Even cottonseed meal is improved by such admixture, al- 

 though the nutritive constituents are approximately the 

 same. Bran may form any part of the meal ration or the 

 whole of it, according to the relative cost. When fed alone, 

 from eight to ten pounds may be given to a cow daily. Fed 

 along with such concentrates as corn, rye and barley, the 

 fodder being carbonaceous in character, as corn, sorghum 

 or any of the grasses, one-half the meal fed by weight may 

 consist of bran, but should the fodder be leguminous, as 

 clover hay, it will suffice if bran forms say one-third of the 

 mixture. Usually not more than nine pounds of such a mix- 

 ture are needed daily. Bran, ground oats and ground corn, in 

 equal parts by weight, furnish a grand concentrate for dairy 

 cows. No other by-product is so much used in feeding for 

 milk in this country as bran. 



