CHAPTER XXI 



FEEDS FOR THE DAIRY COW 



I. Caebonaceous Concentrates 



With the high prices now ruling for feed and labor, on many 

 farms, even where good dairy cows are kept, milk is being produced 

 at little or no profit to the owner. Yet, by a wise selection of feeds 

 other dairymen secure goodly profits from cows no better. This 

 shows emphatically that the feeding of the herd should be given most 

 careful study, and the system of farming so planned that a ration 

 both well balanced in chemical nutrients and otherwise satisfactory 

 may be provided at minimum expense. 



Indian corn. — Thruout the corn belt Indian corn, a grain highly 

 relished by the cow, is usually the cheapest carbonaceous concentrate 

 available. Owing to its wide nutritive ratio, corn should be used 

 as the sole concentrate only when leguminous roughages supply the 

 lacking protein, and even then more variety in the ration is advis- 

 able. The poor results secured when corn is not properly balanced 

 by protein-rich feeds are shown in the following table. This gives 

 the results of a trial at the Illinois Station ^ in which one lot of cows 

 was fed a well-balanced ration, in which gluten feed and clover hay 

 furnished the necessary protein, while a second lot was fed corn 

 as the only concentrate, with corn silage, timothy hay, and a small 

 amount of clover hay. 



Corn requires supplement for feeding dairy cows 



Average ration 

 Lot I, balanced ration 

 Ground corn, 3.3 lbs. 

 Gluten feed, 4.7 lbs. 



Lot II, unbalanced ration 

 Ground corn, 8 lbs. 



During the trial the cows in Lot I produced 47 per ct. more milk 

 and 39 per ct. more fat than those in Lot II, fed the same weight 



iFraser and Hayden, 111. Bui. 159. 



267 



