166 



Illinois State Dairymen's Association. 



m 



lbs. of grain a day and the aroma that came from that alfalfa 

 hay during the process of steaming was so sweet that the cows 

 would go up to the feed and bawl for more, showing it was ex- 

 tremely palatable. 



There is another thing to take into consideration. You 

 know a horse does not chew his cud, but a cow does. When the 

 horse eats his grain he chews it, masticates and mixes it with 

 saliva while he is first eating it, while when the cow starts to eat 

 her feed she eats it readily, swallows it and it goes into her first 

 stomach; then she lies down and brings it back to her mouth, 

 and begins the process of mastication, then the saliva flows freely 

 and mixes with the food. That saliva has the power of chang- 

 ing carbohydrates and starches into sugar. Corn meal or heavy 

 food the cow consumes but she finds it impossible to get it all 

 back to masticate it, so the process of digestion does not take 

 place thoroughly and a large portion passes without being digest- 

 ed. Another thing, suppose you take two water glasses, you 

 put in one glass corn meal and in another glass com meal mixed 

 with cut hay. In both glasses pour the same amount of water, 

 allow them to stand a few moments, then pour them out. In thi'* 

 glass with corn meal you will find some in the center dry, in the 

 other glass you will find every particle of that mixture is moist. 

 That brings out my point ; this heavy corn meal, if fed by itself, 

 comes in contact with the digestive juices and those juices simply 

 work on the mass; in the other case, where you mix hay with 

 your feed or bulky feeds those juices come in contact with the 

 mass and percolate through it and work on every particle of it. 

 I know you men will find it to your advantage to try that instead 

 of buying so much feed simply for the sake of supplying bulk. 

 Take your ensilage cutter and run whatever hay you feed through 

 a portion of it, mix it with your grain, and you will find your 

 cows will digest the larger portion of the feed. The digestive 

 apparatus of a dairy cow is the hardest worked portion of her 

 whole body and is the first part of that cow that gives away under 

 pressure, so everything you can do to lighten up that cow's di- 

 gestive apparatus is going to help her make milk. 



Regarding the comparative value of bran and alfalfa, I 

 would say that where the alfalfa is fed with the grain, spread 

 out and some warm water thrown over it, you will get equal 

 results to bran and the comparative value would be a difference 



