ECONOMIC FEEDING AND CARE OF DAIRY COWS, WITH 



INSTRUCTIONS AND EXAMPLES OF HOW 



TO FORMULATE DAIRY RATIONS. 



BY T. L,. HAECKER, PROFESSOR OF DAIRY HUSBANDRY, UNIVERSITY 



OF MINNESOTA. 



St. Anthony Park, Minn. 



American literature dealing with the feeding of domestic animals is 

 largely based upon the teachings of Dr. Emil V. Wolff, a German Scientist, 

 who nearly half a century ago, published the results of his investigations as 

 to the kind and amount of nutrients needed by domestic animals in mak- 

 ing growth, maintaining the body and returning animal products. In 

 his feeding standards the amount of organic matter and disgestible nutrients 

 needed by various animals is given in great detail, and the standard daily 

 ration for an average cow in milk, basing the weight at 1,000 pounds, was 

 fixed at 24 pounds of organic matter and of digestible nutrients, 2.5 pounds 

 of protein, 12.5 pounds of carbohydrates, and .4 of a pound of ether extract 

 or what is commonly termed fat. 



In the application of this standard to feeding practice it has gradually 

 become apparent that the amount of protein stated in the formula or stand- 

 ard, for a dairy cow, was often more than was really needed by one weigh- 

 ing 1,000 pounds. 



A formal deviation from Wolff's standard appeared in bulletin 

 38, of the Wisconsin Experiment Station, by Woll, who collected data 

 from over 100 dairymen and submitted a proposed American standard 

 ration for dairy cows based upon the average obtained from the rations 

 fed. Atwater and Phelps of the Connecticut Station made a special study 

 of this subject during several winters and submitted a standard which 

 seemed to give best results in their investigation. Dr. C. Lehmann, of 

 the Berlin (Germany) Agricultural College, modified the Wolff standard 

 according to the quantity of milk the cow gives. The wisdom of such a 

 standard is obvious, for a cow giving a large flow of milk requires more 

 nutriment, other things being equal, than one giving a smaller fiow. 



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