CHAPTER XXII 

 THE VALUATION OF FEEDINGSTUFFS 



Having seen that most feeders of the corn-belt must buy 

 nitrogenous concentrates in order to properly balance their 

 rations, the question arises, what feed or feeds should he 

 buy? This will depend upon the effect the feed will have 

 upon the animal and its products, upon the cost of the feed, 

 and upon the fertilizing value of the manure resulting from 

 the feed. The nutritive values of the different feeds have 

 ah'eady been discussed. So having decided upon a number 

 of feeds which will be satisfactory for the purpose desired, 

 the feeder must select the ones which will prove the most 

 economical. This of course will depend upon the relative 

 prices of the feeds. 



There are no standard prices for the digestible protein, 

 carbohydrates, and fats of feedingstuffs, so one cannot cal- 

 culate their relative values from their chemical composition 

 as in the case of commercial fertilizers. In fact no entirely 

 satisfactory method of comparing the relative economy of 

 different feedingstuffs has yet been devised. In general, 

 one should compare concentrates with concentrates, or 

 roughages with roughages, upon their content of digestible 

 protein and their content of digestible nutriment, i.e. diges- 

 tible protein, plus digestible carbohydrates, plus digestible 

 fat multiplied by two and one-quarter. 



For example, it is desired to know whether cottonseed 

 meal at $30.00 per ton is more economical than linseed meal 



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