Feeding Dairy Cattle 



total digestible nutrients in each of these feeds. For example, 

 $2.09 is the cost of 100 pounds of digestible material in corn 

 meal at the price given. 



The second part of the table is computed to take into 

 account the manurial value of the feeds. The manurial value 

 has been computed with nitrogen at 18 cents per pound, 

 phosphoric acid at 4.5 cents and potash at 5 cents, most con- 

 servative prices at present, and on the same basis as given 

 in the article on Manurial Values. 



Every farmer when he is thinking of buying feeds should 

 prepare such a table with the prices submitted by the person 

 from whom he expects to purchase. If one does not wish 

 to do this for himself he should have his Farm Bureau Mana- 

 ger in his county do it for him or even request that his feed 

 dealer do it for him to show him the feeds which are truly 

 the cheapest. (Cornell Reading Course bulletin 117 gives 

 all the necessary data for this.) The pounds of total diges- 

 tible nutrients in one ton do not change, so may be used over 

 and over again. This figure for any feed not in this list may 

 be computed easily from any book or bulletin on computing 

 rations. The column giving the manurial value per ton mav 

 be considered fixed, although these prices would of course 

 vary with the price of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash. 

 They are probably accurate enough for comparing the rela- 

 tive value of feeds. 



SELECTING THE MIXTURE 



On the basis of the cost of 100 pounds of total digestible 

 nutrients the cheapest seven feeds, one-half the list, in order 

 of cheapness are distillers' dried grains, gluten feed, malt 

 sprouts, dried beet pulp, flour middlings, hominy feed, wheat 

 bran. Not considering manurial values then, vi^e would sug- 

 gest the following as a good mixture: 



500 lbs. distillers' dried grains 



400 lbs. gluten feed 



500 lbs. hominy feed 



300 lbs. wheat bran 



300 lbs. of oil meal 



This mixture would contain about 23 per cent of total 

 protein and would make a balanced ration with practicallv 

 any kind of roughage. Two of the relatively cheapest feeds, 

 malt sprouts and dried beet pulp, have been left out because 

 the writer would suggest that if either of these be used that 

 it should be wet up and fed separately. If a farmer does 

 not have silage this would be the advisable thing to do 

 Feed the equivalent of three or four pounds of the dried 

 pulp or malt sprouts daily and cut dry grain somewhat 

 Flour middlings are not used because bran is better and only 



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