04 



FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



feed as it is to begrudge the fuel for 

 heating the boiler of the engine. A low 

 fire means low steam pressure and lit- 

 tle work; a good fire, high steam power 

 and efficient work. 



Productive capacity of animals — The 

 amount of manufactured material pro- 

 duced by an animal in a year is some- 

 times enormous. A good cow will yield 

 6000 to 8000 pounds of milk annually, 

 containing 800 to 1000 pounds of dry 

 solids. This is more than twice the dry 

 matter contained in the entire body of 

 an ordinary cow. Some exceptional cows 

 have produced more than 25,000 pounds 

 of milk in a year containing at least 

 3000 pounds of dry matter. 



No other animal equals the cow as a 

 machine for converting feeding stuffs 

 into products for man's use. The hog 

 from birth to 12 months of age may in- 

 crease in weight to 300 or 400 pounds. 

 Liberally fed steers between one and two 



years old may gain 600 to 700 pounds in 

 weight. In both cases less than half 

 the gain in weight is dry matter. This 

 shows that the dairy cow normally pro- 

 duces two to five times as much dry mat- 

 ter in a year as fattening swine or 

 steers. 



Utilizing feeds economically — The 

 relative ability of cattle, sheep and swine 

 to utilize feeds economically, varies 

 with the age and condition of the ani- 

 mal and with the kind of feed. Up to 

 the age of three months calves make more 

 rapid gains than pigs, but with older 

 animals neither cattle nor sheep make 

 as large gains on the same amount of 

 feed as pigs. This point is well brought 

 out in the following table taken from the 

 Farmer's Cyclopedia of Agriculture, 

 which shows the average quantity of the 

 different grains required to produce 100 

 pounds of gain with each of these ani- 

 mals: 



GRAIN BEQUIRED FOR 100 POUNDS GAIN 



The table shows that cattle require 

 much more food to produce a pound of 

 gain than sheep or hogs. It also shows 

 that generally less mixed grain is re- 

 quired to produce a pound of gain with 

 all animals than where the ration con- 

 sists of a single grain with the possible 

 exception of barley for pigs and sheep. 

 The necessity of feeding different grains 

 and of frequently varying the rations 

 for rapid and economical gains has been 

 found very desirable with all animals. 



Feeding capacity of animals — An- 

 other way of stating the differences in 

 the feeding capacity of animals and 

 their ability to produce manufactured 

 products from crude materials is as fol- 

 lows: When animals are fed sufficient 

 and suitable rations 100 pounds of dry 

 matter in the feed will produce on the 

 average 8 pounds of beef, 14 pounds of 

 mutton, 20 pounds of pork, or 100 

 pounds of milk. 



In addition to the actual products 

 for man's use which an animal may 

 produce and which may more than pay 

 for the cost of production, the manure 

 by-product is of the greatest importance 

 in maintaining the fertility of the farm 



and has a direct cash value. Some fruit 

 growers and other specialists frequently 

 buy cattle and feed them through the 

 winter on purchased feed and are satis- 

 fied with the results if they obtain the 

 manure as a clear profit. 



Feeding stuffs lose practically none 

 of their fertiliz ; ng constituents in pass- 

 ing through an animal, but on the other 

 hand are the sooner made available for 

 the uses of crops by the partial decom- 

 position which they undergo. This 

 phase of the subject will be considered 

 more in detail in another chapter of this 

 work. 



FEEDING STANDARDS 



It has been shown that all rations for 

 animals must contain some protein. We 

 have seen also that when carbohydrates 

 and fat are fed with the protein less 

 protein is required and the cost of the 

 ration is lessened. The question arises 

 how much of the ration for different 

 purposes should consist of protein and 

 how much of carbohydrates and fat? 



This problem has been most exten- 

 sively investigated by the Germans, and 

 as a result of many feeding experiments 



