UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



FARMERS' 

 BULLETIN 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 



743 



JULY 24, 1916 



Contribution from the Bureau of Animal Industry, A. D. Melvin, Chief. 



THE FEEDING OF DAIRY COWS. 



By HELMER RABILD, H. P. DAVIS, and W. K. BRAiNERD, 1 of the Dairy Division. 



CONTENTS. 



Liberal feeding necessary for profit- 

 Summer feeding 



Winter feeding 



Importance of a balanced ration 



Nutritive value of the grains and 



Page. 



1 



3 



8 



10 



concentrates 12 



Page. 



Compounding a grain mixture 18 



Quantities of roughage and grain to 



feed 22 



Individual feeding 22 



Water for cows 23 



Salt 



23 



Successful feeding of dairy cows from an economic standpoint in- 

 volves the providing of an abundant supply of palatable, nutritious 

 feed, at the minimum cost per unit of feed, and supplying it to the 

 cow in such way as to secure the largest production for feed con- 

 sumed. This bulletin will attempt to give some factors involved in 

 the economical selection of feeds and to guide the producer in sup- 

 plying them to the cows. 



LIBERAL FEEDING NECESSARY FOR PROFIT. 



The dairy cow has been likened by many writers to a machine or 

 a manufacturing plant. This comparison can be applied literally, with 

 certain reservations. A certain proportion of the power furnished 

 any machine is used for running the machine itself and is not in any 

 sense productive. In a steam engine this is represented in the ex- 

 haust, steam, in heat which escapes without producing steam, and 

 in the friction of the working parts of the engine. In the manu- 

 facturing plant it is represented by the managerial, the clerical, and 



1 Rewritten and completed by Messrs. Rabild and Davis from incomplete manuscript by 

 Mr. Braincrd, who died in May, 1915. 

 41190 Bull. 74316 1 



