138 DAIRY CHEMISTRY 



fodders, and roots blended in such a way as to meet 

 all the requirements of the body. A ration should 

 have the requisite bulk, be palatable, and contain a va- 

 riety of food materials with sufficient digestible nutri- 

 ents. The coarse fodders most satisfactory for dairy 

 feeding are clover hay, alfalfa, corn fodder, corn si- 

 lage, oat hay, and the best grades of timothy, upland, 

 and prairie hay. Common farm grains, as barley, 

 oats, and corn are equally as valuable for milk pro- 

 duction as the common mill products, bran and 

 shorts. Farm grains, however, are not quite as valu- 

 able pound for pound as the more concentrated mill 

 products, such as oil meal and cotton-seed meal. 

 The quantity of food an animal receives should 

 vary with the amount of milk produced. When an 

 animal is giving a full flow of milk, the maximum 

 amount of food should be supplied. A standard 

 ration or one for a cow giving 25 to 30 pounds of 

 milk should contain from 1.7 to 2 pounds of digest- 

 ible protein and about 14 pounds of digestible carbo- 

 hydrates per day. Such a ration will produce about 

 32,000 calories or heat units. A ration that is well 

 suited for dairy purposes will return fro^n 10 to 12 

 per cent of the dry matter of the food in the milk. 

 About one quarter of the protein in the food of a 

 milk cow is used for maintenance purposes, about 

 one half for the production of the milk, and about 

 one quarter is voided as indigestible. It is not pos- 

 sible to formulate definite standards in the feeding 

 of dairy stock that are alike applicable to all animals 



