202 One Thousand Questions in Agriculture 



hydrates and 0.4 per cent fat, or a nutritive ratio of about 1 to 12^. 

 A proper ration would be about 1 to 6 or 7, or less. To balance this 

 up alfalfa can be fed better than anything else in California, for that 

 is very rich in protein and the cheapest supply of protein that there 

 is. If you give the cows a good supply of alfalfa hay with the green 

 corn, you will have an ideal combination. 



Dry Sorghum Fodder. 



Is Egyptian corn fodder good for cozvs? I have been told it would 

 dry up the milk. I have several acres and zvould like to feed it if it 

 is not harmful. 



Dry sorghum fodder is counted about the poorest roughage that 

 one would think of harvesting. It is much less valuable than Indian 

 corn fodder. Egyptian corn is one of the non-saccharine sorghums 

 which are valuable both for grain or for green feeding. We never 

 heard of direct milk-drying effect, though such a result might be 

 expected from feeding such innutritive material, which is also difficult 

 of digestion. If fed for roughness it should be in connection with 

 concentrated foods like bran or oil meal or with green alfalfa. No 

 cow can give much milk when the feed is hardly nutritive enough to 

 keep her alive. 



There seems to be, however, much difference in the dry fodders 

 from different varieties of sorghum. One grower writes: "Kaffir corn 

 is the only variety within our knowledge of which the fodder is of 

 much value. We consider the fodder much more preferable than that 

 of the ordinary Indian corn, and our stock eat it much more readily 

 than the sweet sorghum. However, it requires a much longer season 

 in which to ripen than does any of the other varieties, for which 

 reason it is less desirable to plant in midsummer." 



Steers on Alfalfa. 



How much alfalfa hay xvill a two or three-year-old steer eat per 

 day, and about what is the gain in weight per day? 



A steer will clean up about 33 pounds per day. Steers will make 

 about VA pounds gain in weight per day. 



Concentrates with Alfalfa. 



/ have a good supply of alfalfa hay and have been feeding this as 

 a straight feed for my dairy cows. They are not, however, doing as well 

 as they should and I am looking for some good feed to go with it. 



You could probably get better returns by feeding about a pound 

 of cocoanut meal and three of dried beet pulp than by any other 

 combination of concentrates with straight alfalfa. If you are pro- 

 ducing market milk or butter prices justify it, more concentrates could 

 profitably be fed. It is an expensive proposition to build up a properly 

 balanced ration with alfalfa and concentrates alone, and unless mar- 

 ket mrlk is being sold, it usually does not pay. The cheapest way 



