110 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



THE DAIRY COW-HER FEED AND CARE, 



By J. H. Frandsen, 



Professor of Dairy Husbandry, 



University of. Nebraska. 



(Address delivered before die Illinois Dairymen's Association, 

 Peoria, Illinois, February 4.) 



A study of the history of civilized nations shows us that 

 as civilization advances people have come to depend more and 

 more on the food-making machine — the dairy cow — thereby 

 pushing into the background the flesh-producing or beef animal. 

 Prof. Henry says, "Not only is dairying the leading animal in- 

 dustry of our country at this time, but so it must continue in- 

 definitely for the reason that the cow is a more economical pro- 

 ducer of food for human beings than is the ox or the pig, 

 and again for every 100 pounds of digestible nutrients con- 

 sumed the dairy cow yields about six times as much edible solids 

 in her milk as the beef steer or the mutton sheep in its carcass. 

 To put it in a different way, we find that 1,500 pounds of corn 

 stover when fed to a beef animal will furnish material for 50 

 pounds of edible dry matter in human food form, whereas had 

 the same amount been fed to a dairy animal, there would have 

 been produced 333 pounds of edible human food. Thus there 

 can be no question but that the dairy cow is the most economi- 

 cal food producer and this question of human food production 

 becomes of vital importance as the world population increases. 



We find that Europe (I mean that part not engaged in 

 war) is now milking cows and at the same time increasing her 

 soil fertility which would not be the case were her efforts di- 



