Feeding Dairy Cattle 



a little more expensive. Oil meal has been put in although 

 eleventh in the list because of a personal liking for oil meal 

 in a ration if not wholly out of the question on account of 

 price. The oil meal would not be needed except for variety 

 if silage is available and perhaps not needed at all if the beet 

 pulp or malt sprouts are fed wet. 



If manurial values are given credit the seven cheapest 

 feeds in the list in order are malt sprouts, distillers' dried 

 grains, gluten feed, cottonseed meal, wheat bran, brewers' 

 dried grains, flour wheat middlings. The following sugges- 

 tion is made on this basis : 



400 lbs. distillers' dried grains 



400 lbs. gluten feed 



200 lbs. brewers' dried grains 



300 lbs. wheat bran 



500 lbs. hominy feed 



200 lbs. cottonseed meal 



Here again malt sprouts come high in the list and could 

 be used to advantage fed wet. There are several factors 

 against malt sprouts. Weed seeds are present many times, 

 and may germinate after passing through the cow. Further, 

 according to some authorities, the value of the protein in 

 malt sprouts is not high. Therefore the use of malt sprouts 

 may be more or less questionable. 



This the writer ofifers as a basis for the proper selection of 

 feeds. We invite criticism. It is merely a mathematical 

 method of studying prices and the selection must always be 

 modified by one's knowledge of what the feed will do. The 

 writer has given one example in putting oil meal in the first 

 mixture because he likes oil meal in a ration. 



V. Forage Crops for Roughage 



THERE is one great forage crop in the United States 

 which is head and shoulders above all others except 

 perhaps alfalfa. That crop is corn. Corn is king of 

 the cereal grains and for all dairy farmers is king of the 

 roughages. No dairy farmer can afford to continue without 

 a silo. This statement cannot be made too strong. There- 

 fore the main part of this article shall be a plea for silage on 

 every dairy farm. 



Early each spring every farmer should plan a crop of 

 corn for next winter's feeding, and if he does not have one. 

 plan to buy and build the silo in the late summer. Estimat- 

 ing thirty pounds per head per day for i8o days' feeding, a 

 silo which will hold lOO tons will furnish silage enough for 

 liberal feeding for a herd of 35 mature cows or the equivalent. 

 Page Twenty-Seven 



