2 BULLETIN £45, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



meal, linseed meal, alfalfa and other legume hays, and corn silag<e 

 and stover. Most of the cows have had a little pasture in the sum- 

 mer, but not enough to make up any considerable proportion of the 

 total amount of feed eaten in the year. 



The aim has been to feed the cows as much protein as is required 

 by the most liberal of the American feeding standards, to keep them 

 in good condition, to have them calve once a year, and to have them 

 dry each year for 6 to 8 weeks before calving. It has generally hap- 

 pened in practice that the cows were fed a little less liberally than is 

 demanded by the Savage and Eckles standards (9) 2 for the first 

 two or three months after calving, and a little more liberally later. 

 When they were dry they were usually fed 4 pounds of grain mix- 

 ture B, 3 4 pounds of legume hay, and as much silage as they would 

 clean up. When the hay was alfalfa and the amount of silage eaten 

 daily 30 pounds, which was the most usual state of things, this ration 

 provided 1.29 pounds of digestible crude protein and 10.29 pounds of 

 total digestible nutriment daily. After subtracting the maintenance 

 requirement for a 1,000-pound cow, this would allow 0.59 pound pro- 

 tein and 2.37 pounds total nutriment daily for the growth of the 

 unborn calf, which, according to the results obtained by Eckles (3), 

 ought to be sufficient. 



We have recently calculated the protein and total nutriment in the 

 yearly rations of a number of cows from the general herd and have 

 compared these quantities with those required for their maintenance 

 and for their milk and fat yield according to the Savage standard. 

 The results have shown that the cows usually received rations a little 

 more liberal than those demanded by that standard. 



During the last two years a number of the purebred Holsteins have 

 been run on official test. In order to increase their milk yield their 

 rations were made decidedly more liberal than those called for by any 

 of the feeding standards. During the milking period they received 

 daily about 12 pounds of alfalfa hay, 20 pounds of corn silage, and 

 as much grain as they could clean up without getting sick ; they usu- 

 ally ate 18 to 20 pounds a day of grain mixture F. They were fed 

 heavily also before their calves were born; for 60 days or more 

 before calving they usually received about 15 pounds of grain mix- 

 ture F, 12 pounds of alfalfa hay, and 25 pounds of corn silage, a 

 ration containing approximately four times as much protein and two 

 and one-half times as much total nutriment as the routine ration fed 

 to the dry cows of the general herd. 



The cows on test gave from 15,000 to 20,000 pounds of milk in 

 the year; that is, three to four times as much as most of the cows 

 in the general herd. A part of this larger yield is due to the fact that 



2 The figures in parentheses refer to " Literature cited" at end of paper. 

 * See list of grain mixtures used in experiments, on p. 25. 



