ECONOMY IN FEEDING LIVE STOCK 107 



fertilizers. (See Chapter XVII.) While such a system may be of 

 limited value for a short period of time and when applied to small 

 districts where the systems of farming do not differ widely, no such 

 set of values can be applied generally thruout the United States. This 

 is because the value of any given feed to the stockman depends on the 

 nature and composition of the other feeds he has on hand at the par- 

 ticular time. If his chief roughage is alfalfa hay, protein-rich concen- 

 trates are often worth less to him than those rich in carbohydrates. 

 On the other hand, if his roughage is mostly corn or sorghum silage, 

 low in protein, then protein-rich concentrates will be of higher value to 

 him than those of carbonaceous character. 



In comparing the relative cheapness of different feeds, it is reason- 

 able to value marketable farm-grown feeds at the market price less the 

 cost of hauling to market. Feeds not marketable may be assigned a 

 value based on the cost of production. To the price of any purchased 

 feeds should be added any cost of hauling to the farm, tho often they 

 may be brought to the farm on a return trip from market with little 

 or no additional expense. In selling crops and buying feed the prudent 

 farmer-stockman will always take into account the value of the fertility 

 gained or lost in the transaction. 



In planning economical rations for any class of animals the stock- 

 man should first choose a combination, containing the proper propor- 

 tion of concentrates and roughages, which will supply the necessary 

 total amount of nutrients at the minimum expense. If this ration is 

 too low in protein, the supply should be brought to the desired amount 

 by substituting protein-rich feeds for those lower in protein. On the 

 other hand, if the ration is too rich in protein, then carbonaceous feeds 

 should be substituted until the nutritive ratio is widened sufficiently. 



To determine which feeds are the cheapest supplements to balance a 

 ration low in protein, it will be found convenient to compute the cost 

 of the different feeds per pound of digestible crude protein. 



A comparison of corn-belt feeds for milk production. — To show 

 how the prices of the available feeds should be- studied in computing 

 rations, let us assume that a dairyman in the corn belt has available 

 the following : Ground dent corn at $20, ground oats at $25, ground 

 barley at $26, timothy hay at $16, red clover hay at $12, and corn 

 silage from well-matured corn at $3.50 per ton. He can purchase 

 hominy feed at $26, high-grade gluten feed at $30, wheat bran at $25, 

 corn and oat feed at $25, choice cottonseed meal at $34, old-process 

 linseed meal at $34, and alfalfa meal at $22 per ton. For convenience 

 we will arrange in tabular form the data from Appendix Table III for 

 these different feeds, and compute the cost per pound of digestible 

 crude protein and the cost of 1 lb. of total digestible nutrients in each. 



