ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 25 



There is a good lesson in those figures and especially as it was in a 

 year when protein was so high. 



At the meetings that were held in February, it was decided what 

 should be charged for the feeds. We could not have one amount of feed 

 at the market price and another at another price. It was necessary, in 

 order not to get too large or too small a price to have a permenent price 

 for the feeds. They decided to take the average of the five years past, and 

 the feed was charged to them all at ;he average of the last five years. 

 Bran, $15.00; oats, $10.00; corn meal, $16.00; linseed meal, $25.00; cotton 

 seed meal, $25.00; pea meal, $25.00. I think those are the prices without 

 having the figures just at hand. 



Now the lesson to be gained from these computations is this: If we 

 can not raise the protein feeds, have to buy a large portion of them when 

 they are so excessively high as this year, and the price of products not 

 correspondingly high, would it not be a good plan to feed a wider ration, 

 although we can't get quite as much milk? I would be understood, that 

 we can get more milk by feeding a narrow ration than! a wide one. We 

 can do that. Is it not more profitable to feed a wider, ration with such 

 feeds as we can raise on the farm, and get less milk at a less cost? I 

 think that is what we are after — raise more and buy less. 



You probably noticed that dunDg the second period that they used 

 less dry matter. The total of dry matter on the second period was less 

 than the first or the third. Wp fed a good deal of green clover, green 

 oats and green millet. The first load of green clover that we had brought 

 in, why, the herdsmen were &o tickled. They were going to have green 

 clover right along, and calculated they would drop the grain f ^ed. It 

 was the prevailing idea they could now drop their grain feed. When we 

 turned the cows out in pasture we do not need to supplement with grain 

 feed, but they were greatly mistaken. The cows went down. down. down. 

 And they, too, thought it was not necessary to feed them any grain. 



The clover looked nice when we got it, and it was nice, ^he cows 

 liked it too, tut the nutriment in it had not fullv developed It was no 



