132 THE BUSINESS OF DAIRYING 



waste, or in some instances the production of 

 flesh rather than milk. If the animals are over- 

 fed their health is endangered, the quality of the 

 product is impaired, and there is also waste. In 

 any case the feeder should study carefully his own 

 conditions. He must determine for himself whether 

 greater profit will follow large production coupled 

 with greater cost, or low production with less ex- 

 penditure ; whether it will pay better to feed largely 

 home-grown foods and a fairly wide ration, or 

 to sell some foods and buy others which will add 

 more of the nutrient protein to the ration, thus mak- 

 ing it narrower. Ordinarily with good cows, good 

 markets and a reasonable price for concentrated 

 feeds, approximate conformity to standards will be 

 found most profitable. 



Calculation of rations. — The feeding of the dairy 

 cow is a science which may be defined as supplying 

 food in the right proportion to meet the various re- 

 quirements without a waste of food nutrients. The 

 process of calculating a ration is much simpler than 

 it appears at first. With certain coarse foods and 

 grain feeds at hand, definite weights are provision- 

 ally chosen, the total dry matter and digestible 

 nutrients are determined and the result compared 

 with the standard. If the result is close to the 

 standard the work is done, otherwise the additions 

 or subtractions are made, or possibly some other 

 foods are substituted until the standard is reached. 

 An example will best explain how a ration is calcu- 

 lated. Let us as a preliminary trial take some feeds 

 commonly used on dairy farms, as corn silage, 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



