VALUE OF CORN BRAN FOR MILK PRODUCTION. 143 



to be well digested by ruminants ; its energy value as compared with corn 

 meal at 100 is equal to 82. In the minds of many feeders corn bran is 

 considered a quite inferior product, and at best of doubtful feeding value. 

 Method of conducting the Ex'periment. — In order to demonstrate its 

 value two feeding experiments with cows were carried out at this station 

 during 1917 and 1918. In one case six and in the other eight cows were 

 fed by the reversal method, for two periods of five weeks each, on a basal 

 ration of hay, gluten feed, ground oats and cottonseed meal.^ Half of 

 the cows in each case received in addition 4 pounds of corn bran during 

 the first periods of the experiments, while the other half received a like 

 amount of wheat bran. In the second periods the corn and wheat brans 

 were interchanged. At the outset the cows used in each experiment were 

 as carefully mated in regard to yield of milk and period of lactation as 

 possible, so that the two herds receiving the different rations would vary 

 in general performance but very little. Their names and arrangement 

 may be found in Tables I and II. 



1 A little cottonseed meal was added to each ration in the second experiment in order to insure 

 against the possible ill effect of having too great a proportion of the grains derived from corn in 

 the corn bran half of the trial. 



