FARMER'S 

 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



PRINCIPLES OF STOCK FEEDING 



Man's first flocks and herds lived by 

 grazing. No grain was fed them and 

 no forage was stored for their use in 

 winter. Their grazing ground changed 

 with necessity and they were fat or lean 

 according to the season and the abun- 

 dance of herbage. This method of stock- 

 raising is limited to regions of favorable 

 climate. Land also must be cheap and 

 thinly settled. Such conditions prevail 

 in the United States today in some states 

 of the West. The principles of feeding 

 under such conditions are limited to a 

 knowledge of the best feeding grounds 

 and watering pools. Where the winters 

 are so severe that stock cannot secure 

 forage, and in thickly settled communi- 

 ties where land is too expensive to be 

 kept in pasture, or where it is desired 

 to increase beyond the normal the pro- 

 duction of milk or wool or eggs or meat 

 or work, then feeding becomes necessary 

 and a knowledge of the principles of 

 feeding of great importance. 



For centuries our domestic animals 

 have been cared for by man. Stock has 

 been fattened, cows fed for their milk 

 and beasts of burden made to work, and 

 men have come to know in a general way 

 the food requirements for these different 

 purposes. Yet the facts thus learned by 

 observation were particular facts and ap- 

 plied to particular foods. Each feeder 

 had his theories and each theory differed 

 from every other theory. No man knew 

 the reasons — the why of it all. 



Studying animal nutrition — It was 

 not until about 60 years ago that the 

 subject of animal nutrition began to be 

 studied seriously. The pioneers in this 

 work were Boussinganlt in France, Lie- 

 big in Germany and Lawes and Gilbert 

 in England. The voluminous results of 

 German investigators were first made 

 available to American and English 

 readers in 1880 by Dr. H. P. Armsby in 

 his Manual of Cattle Feeding. 



This work presented a comprehensive 

 digest of the experiments in animal nu- 



trition made up to that time and served 

 as a direct stimulus to the extensive in- 

 vestigations which have since been made 

 along similar lines in America at our 

 experiment stations. At the present 

 time we have a comparatively full un- 

 derstanding of the very complicated sub- 

 ject of animal nutrition. 



Principles of nutrition — I n our pres- 

 entation of the subject we will discuss 

 the principles of nutrition in so far as 

 they may be necessary to a clear under- 

 standing of the subject by the feeder. 

 Under principles of feeding will be 

 taken up for consideration such matters 

 as the composition of animals and plants, 

 defining such terms as are commonly 

 employed in this connection; the diges- 

 tion of food and factors influencing di- 

 gestibility; the function of the various 

 food constituents in the body, such as 

 protein, carbohydrates, fat, mineral mat- 

 ter, salt and water; the compounding of 

 rations; feeding standard; calculating 

 balanced rations ; and tables showing the 

 composition of American feeding stuffs 

 and their percentage digestibility, etc. 



COMPOSITION OF ANIMALS 



A clear understanding of animal feed- 

 ing begins with a knowledge of what the 

 animal is — what it is made of, what 

 changes in composition take place during 

 growth and during fattening, and the 

 like. This information has been well 

 supplied by the work of Lawes and Gil- 

 bert in England, who analyzed the en- 

 tire bodies of ten animals, and by the 

 Maine experiment station in this coun- 

 try, which analyzed the entire bodies, ex- 

 clusive of the skins, of four steers. The 

 results of .these analyses are shown in 

 the table below: 



COMPOSITION OF FARM ANIMALS 



Water Ash Pro- Fat 

 tein 



p ct p ct p ct p ct 



Fat calf 62.3 4.48 16.6 16.6 



Half fat ox 54.0 5.56 17.8 22.6 



Fat ox 45.6 4.56 15.0 34.8 



Steer 17 months old.. 59.4 4.40 17.4 18.8 



