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part of which will necessarily be of low nutritive value. As a matter 

 of fact, her total ration should include from 25 to 35 pounds or even 

 more dry matter. It is evident, therefore, that a great deal of 

 roughage has to be fed so that this quantity of dry matter may be 

 supplied to the cow. Experience has shown that for a 1,000 pound 

 animal, a good roughage ration is 35 Ibs. corn ensilage, 20 Ibs. 

 mangels, 5 Ibs. clover hay and a little chaff. 



The amount and character of the meal mixture or concentrate 

 part of the ration will be affected by the amount of milk being 

 produced. 



If a cow responds freely to an increase of meal she should be 

 fed all the more liberally up to that point where a further increase 

 in the quantity of meal does not seem to produce a relative increase 

 in milk flow. 



One pound of meal for four pounds of milk is liberal feeding; 

 one pound for three pounds of milk would be hardly economical 

 unless dairy products were bringing relatively a very high price. 



The quality or composition of the meal ration is an important 

 factor affecting the milk yield. As a rule, heavy milking cows can 

 and will make better use of meal mixtures containing heavy meals 

 such as corn, gluten meal, oil cake and cotton seed meal, than will 

 small producers. 



Further, it is exceedingly important to remember that palatabil- 

 ity in the meal as well as in the roughage is an influence that is not 

 infrequently underestimated. Variety in meals fed is advisable, 

 but variety should mean a blending of meals not a substitution of 

 one for another at frequent intervals. To illustrate, it is much 

 better to feed a mixture of bran, oats, barley, oil meal, gluten, cotton- 

 seed meal, etc., than to feed any single one of them for a time, to be 

 subsequently replaced by some other. 



INDIVIDUALITY OF COWS. 



Another point to be kept in mind is that considerable difference 

 may be observed in individual cows as to their feeding capacity and 

 the returns they make for the food supplied them. These differences 

 may in turn be ascribed to differences in the maintenance require- 

 ments of each. The maintenance requirement is the ' amount of 

 food required to prevent the body consuming its own tissues/ In 

 this maintenance requirement, considerable variation may be observed 

 in individuals of the same bresds on similar feeds and under like 



