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FOODS AND FP:EDING 



Composition of rations. 



A satisfactory ration must not only supply the necessary 

 amount of nutrition but must also be sufficiently bulky to fill 

 the animal's belly; it is not possible to keep an animal in 

 health by feeding it only on concentrated food like groundnut 

 cake or cotton seed, but it must also get a bulky fodder. It 

 is important to see that the proportion between the nitro- 

 genous (proteid) and the non-nitrogenous constituents is 

 correct, in order on the one hand to avoid giving too much 

 proteid which is expensive and wasteful, and on the other, 

 diminishing the proteid below what is necessary for the 

 animal's health whether it is a mature bullock or a growing 

 calf. This proportion is called the nutritive ratio, and 

 shows the proportion between the amounts of each actually 

 digested by the animals. It is incorrect to work out the 

 ration by the actual quantities found by analysis, though as 

 a matter of fact, it has to be done in many cases, because to 

 mid the digestive co-efficient, i.e., the proportion of a sub- 

 stance which is digested, is a tedious business and necessitates 

 actual trial on the animal. The nutritive ratio of a standard 

 diet is worked out in both ways below. To find the nutritive 

 or albuminoid ratio, the average percentages of the various 

 substances are taken, the fat brought to its equivalent in 

 carbohydrate by multiplying it by 2*29, and the total quantity 

 of non-nitrogenous matter is then divided by the total 

 quantity of nitrogenous matter. 



For example, let us take the following ration : — 1£ lb. 

 cotton seed, \\ lb. groundnut cake and 20 lb. cholam straw. 

 Then :— 



7-2 X 2-29 = 1-65. 1-65 + 8-63 = 10'28. 

 Albuminoid ratio = 10*28 -f- 1*48 = 1 : 7. 



