30 



ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



of protein. Multiplying tins by 25.8 gives us 1.47, the amount of protein 

 needed for the 25.8 pounds of milk, and adding to this .74, the amount 

 needed for body maintenance, we find she requires in her daily ration 2.22 

 pounds of protein. 



The coefficients given as the amount of protein required for a pound 

 of milk of a specified quality is what our cows received, but it may not be 

 the minimum amount required. But enough data has been obtained to 

 show that cows do not need as much protein as has been taught and is gen- 

 erally supposed. Some of the cows in the list received more protein than 

 they seemed to need for the work they were doing, and consequently that 

 provided in excess of the amount needed was wasted or converted into 

 body fat. For a few weeks during the beginning of her period of lactation, 

 it is well to give a cow a little more than the yjeld would call for, to give 

 her an opportunity to increase her flow, but after she has been in milk a 

 couple of months, the ration should be adjusted to the amount and kind of 

 milk she is giving. 



Our herd is not doing as well this winter, as it has done heretofore. 

 We are having a great many visiting delegations, and the feed does not 

 seem to contain the usual amount of nutriment. The warm, moist fall 

 seems to have caused this, and then the fodder corn became very moldy 

 and musty. Our grain mixture during the month of January was five 

 parts corn meal, five parts bran and two parts gluten meal. Some of the 

 heifers are getting six pounds of this mixture, some of the cows are 

 getting seven pounds, some eight, and a few nine pounds. The average 

 for the herd is eight pounds. They also receive in weight as much cut 

 corn fodder as they do grain and three times as much ensilage. That 

 is, a cow that receives eight pounds of grain, gets eight pounds of fodder 

 torn and twenty-four pounds of ensilage. 



The feed cost to produce a hundred pounds of milk from the cows 

 under experiment is 37.6 cents. 



Q. How large a herd? 



Prof. Haecker: Thirty cows are in the experiment. There are 

 about forty cows in the herd, but some are dry and others are strippers. 



