HOW TO FIGURE OUT RATIONS. 229 



Total Digestible Nutr. 



Dry Mtr. Pro. Garb. & Fat Ratio. 



Ration as above 20.0 lbs. 1.42 lbs. 12.1 lbs. 1:6.4 



2 lbs. oil meal (O.P.) 1.8 .62 1.0 



Total 21.8 2.04 13.1 1:6.4 



Amer. prac. feeding 

 ration 2.2 14.9 1: 6.9 



Wolff-Lehmann 



standard 29.0 2.5 14.1 1:5.7 



The new ration is still rather light, both in total and digestible 

 food materials; for many cows it might prove effective as it is, 

 while for others it would doubtless be improved by a further 

 addition of some concentrated food medium rich in protein, or if 

 grain feed^ are high, of more hay or silage. The feeding rations 

 are not intended to be used as infallible standards that must be 

 followed blindly, nor could they be used as such. They are only 

 meant to be approximate gauges by which the farmer may know 

 whether the ration which he is feeding is of about such a com- 

 position and furnishes such amounts of important food materials 

 as are most likely to produce best results, cost of feed and re- 

 turns in products as well as condition of animals being all con- 

 sidered. 



In constructing rations according to the above feeding stand- 

 ard,^ several points must be considered besides the chemical 

 composition and the digestibility of the feeding stufEs; the stand- 

 ard cannot be followed directly without regard to bulk and other 

 properties of the fodder; the ration must not be too bulky, and 

 still must contain a sufficient quantity of roughage to keep up 

 the rumination of the animals, in case of cows and sheep, and 

 to secure a healthy condition of the animals generally. The 

 local market prices of cattle foods are of the greatest impor- 

 tance in determining which foods to buy; the conditions in the 

 different sections of our great continent differ so greatly in this 

 respect that no generalizations can be made. Generally speaking, 

 nitrogenous concentrated feeds are the cheapest feeds in the 

 South and in the East, and flour-mill, brewery, distillery, and 

 starch -factory refuse feeds the cheapest in the Northwest. 



