174 DOMESTIC ANIMALS, DAIRYING, ETC. 



The rule regarding the amount of grain to feed per day to each 

 cow applies only when good roughness such as corn silage, and 

 clover, cowpeas, or alfalfa hay is used. 



Home Grown Balanced Rations. One reason why the average 

 farmer makes a mistake of feeding his cows rations that are not prop- 

 erly balanced is that it is easier, or he thinks it is, to grow feeds that 

 are excessively rich in carbohydrates and lacking in protein. This 

 comes about principally by the large amount of corn grown and 

 used. Many farmers have corn fodder and timothy hay for rough- 

 ness and practically nothing in the way of grain but corn. From 

 such feeds it is impossible to make a ration that supplies the neces- 

 sary nutrients to produce much milk. It is possible to make a fairly 

 good ration using these for roughness, but it is only possible to do so 

 by buying large quantities of mill feeds that are rich in protein. 

 The thing for the farmer to do is to raise the feeds he requires on 

 his own farm, as far as possible, and it is possible to produce prac- 

 tically all that is needed to make a balanced ration. The place to 

 begin in considering the feeding of an animal always is with the 

 roughness, since the character of the roughness determines to a large 

 extent the kind of grain it is advisable to feed. 



The cheapest source of protein is in leguminous hays, including 

 clover, alfalfa and cowpea hay. If an abundance of any one of 

 these hays are on hand, the problem of making an economical bal- 

 anced ration is very much simplified. The use of these hays makes 

 it unnecessary to buy any large quantities of bran, oil meal or cotton- 

 seed meal for ordinary dairy cows, and makes it possible that the 

 principal grain used be corn, which is usually our cheapest grain. 

 Even cowpea or alfalfa hay alone, with corn for grain, makes a 

 fairly good ration for an ordinary dairy cow, and such a ration could 

 be substituted with good results for that of timothy hay and corn 

 fodder. When hay is purchased, it is always best to purchase one 

 of the kinds mentioned, as the price is about the same, or lower than 

 that of timothy, which is far inferior as a milk producing food. If 

 any hay is to be sold from the farm it should be timothy hay and not 

 clover or cowpea hay. (Mo. Cir. 44.) 



Suggestions to Consumers. There appears to be a growing ten- 

 dency on the part of consumers to purchase proprietary brands of 

 feeding stuffs that are mixtures of two or more by-products. Many of 

 these mixtures are compounded for the purpose of providing a me- 

 dium in which inferior waste products lose their identity by mixing 

 them with materials of good and well recognized quality. For in- 

 stance, an "oat feed" may contain hominy feed, oat hulls and some- 

 times enough of some material rich in protein, perhaps gluten meal, 

 to bring the protein content of the mixture up to a desirable propor- 

 tion. Such a mixture is worth commercially what the hominy feed 

 and gluten meal would cost and no more. If 20 per cent of oat hulls 

 are present then the price of the mixtures should be 20 per cent less 

 than what a full ton of the hominy feed and gluten meal mixture 

 would cost. ^ Oat hull mixtures are not an imposition on the con- 

 sumer, provided they are sold at a price proportional to the standard 



