The Ideal Ration 49 



(hay, silage, roots, etc.) she will eat, and one pound 

 of grain food (concentrates)^ for each three to four 

 pounds of milk she produces; and in many cases 

 this will be found to be just about all she will eat 

 regularly without going "off feed." 



A second consideration in an ideal ration is that it 

 should be nutritious; that is to say,- there should be 

 a certain relation between the digestible and indiges- 

 tible parts of the food. The cow is a ruminant, and 

 the digestive organs of ruminants have been devel- 

 oped to use comparatively large amounts of foods, 

 relatively small portions of which are digestible. On 

 the other hand, it is possible so to combine the ration 

 that it will be so bulky that the digestible portion will 

 be insufficient to support the animal and provide a 

 maximum amount of product. The ration should be 

 sufficiently bulky, on the one hand, to fully distend 

 the stomach and other digestive organs. At the same 

 time, there should be enough digestible material to 

 fully meet the requirements of the animal. If, how- 

 ever, we go to the other extreme and make the ration 

 of too concentrated or easily digested foods, the ani- 

 mal will have a superabundance of digestible material 

 in too small a bulk to properly distend the digestive 

 organs. The most frequent result of this is that the 

 appetite becomes cloyed, the digestive organs disar- 

 ranged, and the animal goes "off feed." Practical 

 experience has shown that a proper balance is reached 

 when about two -thirds of the total dry matter of the 

 ration is in the form of roughage, and one -third in 

 the form of concentrates. 



