Thirty-fourth Annual Convention. . ^'^ 



The facts given in the following pages are taken from an 

 experiment planned for a different purpose, yet they serve as a 

 good example of the difference between a poor ration (no poorer 

 than fed on many farms) and a moderately good though not ideal 

 ration. 



Twenty cows were taken and divided into two lots of ten 

 each. Later one from each lot was dropped leaving nine in each 

 lot. They were treated alike except as to food. 



The t{wo lots of cows divided as nearly equal as possible 

 with regard to milk flow, persistency, etc. The difference in the 

 milk flow for the week previous to starting the experiment was 

 11.7 pounds or 1.3 pounds per cow per day. This difference 

 was in favor of lot I. On the other hand there was a difference 

 in fat production in favor lot II. In other words while on the 

 same feed lot I produced a little more milk and lot II a little 

 more fat. Ordinarily we would expect the cows giving the larger 

 amount of milk to fall off more rapidly but this was not the case 

 as will be seen later. 



The two lots were started on these rations Jan. 1, 1906, 

 and continued until April 10, 1906, a period of little over 18 

 weeks. The rations fed previous to this consisted of good clover 

 hay, silage and grain (corn meal, bran and gluten feed). • 



The ration fed lot I was as follows: grain (3^ parts corn 

 meal and 3^ parts gluten feed) silage and clover hay. These 

 were fed as nearly as practical in the following proportions.: 8 

 pounds grain. 30 pounds of silage and 8 pounds of hay. This 

 ration has a nutritive ratio of 1 to QQ. 



The ration fed lot II was as follows: grain (corn meal), 

 silage, timothy hay 5 pounds and clover hay 3 pounds. It might 

 be argued that corn meal is too heavy a feed. To avoid this 

 effect it was mixed with the silage. It was found necessary in 

 this case to change the proportions somewhat in the case of in- 

 dividual cows. The nutritive ratio is of this ration 1 to 11. 

 There is a wide difference between the protein contents of the 

 two rations. Note that ration No. I was made up of corn pro- 

 ducts and clover hay and that ration No. II was made of corn 

 products, clover and timothy hay. Both lots fell off as soon as" 

 changed to the new rations, but lot II fell off much more rapidly 

 than lot I (see charts). 



