THIRTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL CONVENTION 157 



be purchased which will supply the protein lacking in the feeds 

 grown on the farm. Where a sufficient amount of feed can not 

 be grown it often becomes necessary to purchase other feeds 

 than those needed for protein. 



There is a long list of feeds on the market and it becomes 

 quite a problem for the farmer to decide which he should select. 

 For a number of these, extravagant claims are made by agents 

 either willfully or ignorantly. One agent called at the Station 

 and purposed to guarantee that the feed he was selling would 

 produce twice as much milk as any other feed that we could get, 

 which was absurd. There is nothing better than the straight 

 grains when properly combined with home grown roughage in 

 the ration. So many of the new mixed feeds now on the market 

 have not been tried out in feeding tests and it is so easy for the 

 manufacturer or mixer to vary the contents that it is difficult to 

 state their value in terms of digestible nutrients, which is the 

 true measure of value. For these reasons they are not given 

 in the table. Given percentages of nutrients are guaranteed but 

 these are total and not digestible nutrients. Their digestibility 

 and value depends much upon the materials from which they 

 come. Many of these mixed feeds contain mill screenings with 

 weed seed, oat hulls, chaff, etc., which are of little if any value. 

 They are usually claimed to be balanced rations in themselves. 

 The dairyman who has his own farm should not purchase 

 a balanced ration, but something which when added to his 

 home grown feeds, will give a balanced ration, and this will 

 almost invariably be a feed which contains a high percentage 

 of protein and the problem will be to determine which feed will 

 give the cheapest protein. Table I has been planned to assist 

 in the selection of such feeds. In practically all parts of Illinois, 

 corn will furnish the cheapest digestible nutrients, exclusive of 

 protein needed for balancing the ration. Therefore, corn, or 

 ground corn, is used as the basis of comparison in the Table 

 and should be used as far as possible in the ration. 



It is assumed that the same quantity of digestible protein, 

 carbohydrate and fat are of no more value in any other feed 

 than they are in corn. This is approximately true. If the car- 



