138 DAIRY CBMMISTBY 



fodders, and roots blended in such a way as to meet 

 all the requirements of the body. A ration should 

 have the requisite bulk, be palatable, and contain a va- 

 riety of food materials vt^ith sufficient digestible nutri- 

 ents. The coarse fodders most satisfactory for dairy 

 feeding are clover hay, alfalfa, corn fodder, corn si- 

 lage, oat hay, and the best grades of timothy, upland, 

 and prairie hay. Common farm grains, as barley, 

 oats, and corn are equally as valuable for milk pro- 

 duction as the common mill products, — bran and 

 shorts. Farm grains, however, are not quite as valu- 

 able pound for pound as the more concentrated mill 

 products, such as oil meal and cotton-seed meal. 

 The quantity of food an animal receives should 

 vary with the amount of milk produced. When an 

 animal is giving a full flow of milk, the maximum 

 amount of food should be supplied. A standard 

 ration or one for a cow giving 25 to 30 pounds of 

 milk should contain from 1.7 to 2 pounds of digest- 

 ible protein and about 14 pounds of digestible carbo- 

 hydrates per day. Such a ration will produce about 

 32,000 calories or heat units. A ration that is well 

 suited for dairy purposes will return from 10 to 12 

 per cent of the dry matter of the food in the milk. 

 About one quarter of the protein in the food of a 

 milk cow is used for maintenance purposes, about 

 one half for the production of the milk, and about 

 one quarter is voided as indigestible. It is not pos- 

 sible to formulate definite standards in the feeding 

 of dairy stock that are alike applicable to all animals 



