The Ideal Ration 49 
(hay, silage, roots, ete.) she will eat, and one pound 
of grain food (concentrates) for each three to four 
pounds of milk she produces; and in many cases 
this will be found to be just about ‘all she will eat 
regularly without going “off feed.” 
A second consideration in an ideal ration is that it 
should be nutritious; that is to say, there should be 
a certain relation between the digestible and indiges- 
tible parts of the food. The cow is a ruminant, ‘and 
the digestive organs of ruminants have been devel- 
oped to use comparatively large amounts of foods, 
relatively small ‘portions of which are digestible. On 
the other hand, it is possible so to combine the ration 
that it will be so bulky that the digestible portion will 
be insufficient to support the animal and provide a 
maximum amount of product. The ration should be 
sufficiently bulky, on the one hand, to fully distend 
the stomach and other digestive organs. At the same 
time, there should be enough digestible material to 
fully meet the requirements of the animal. If, how- 
ever, we go to the other extreme and make the ration 
of too concentrated or easily digested foods, the ani- 
mal will have a superabundance of digestible material 
in too small a bulk to properly distend the digestive 
organs. The most frequent result of this is that the 
appetite becomes cloyed, the digestive organs disar-. 
ranged, and the animal goes “off feed.” Practical 
experience has shown that a proper balance is reached 
when about two-thirds of the total dry matter of the 
ration is in the form of roughage, and one-third in 
the form of concentrates. 
D 
