144 THE MANy\GEMENT AND FEEDING OF CATTLE 



is passed it would seem correct to say that for ordinary 

 feeding the grain fed daily should be not much less than 

 I pound for every loo pounds of the live weight of the 

 animal, and that it should not be more than I '4 pounds. 

 It may be less than the amount named when large quan- 

 tities of roots are fed or of ensilage rich in corn. When 

 first-class clover or alfalfa hay form the roughage, the 

 grain fed may be reduced from 25 to 33 per cent as com- 

 pared with nearly all other kinds of fodder. When corn 

 is fed and swine follow, more than the amount named 

 must be fed. 



Fodders to feed. — The coarse fodders or roughage 

 that may be fed to cattle being fattened may include 

 almost every variety grown. Even the straw of cereals 

 may be utilized with profit under some conditions of 

 feeding, but usually as only a part of the ration. In 

 the southern states, cottonseed hulls are, in some in- 

 stances, made to take the place of roughage, at least to 

 a very considerable extent. But before the coarse fod- 

 ders that are low in palatability can be fed they must 

 be chaffed and fed with meal or roots, or both, to insure 

 their consumption. 



The best fodders, regardless of cost, are the legumes. 

 Of these clover, in one or other of its varieties, and 

 alfalfa are most commonly fed. Next to these come 

 corn and hay from the various grasses, and lowest in 

 value is straw of the small cereals. The cheapest fodders 

 that can be fed, where the conditions are favorable to 

 growing them, are usually obtained from corn and the 

 sorghums, and these may be most cheaply furnished 

 under many conditions in the form of silage. 



In feeding fodders, the feeder must, as a rule, feed 

 such as he has. They are so bulky that transportation 

 is usually too costly to admit of buying them. This 

 means that the feeder, in balancing the ration, must aim 

 to make the concentrates conform to what is lacking in 

 the fodders rather than to attempt the opposite of this. 



