212 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



straw per day! If it were possible for cows to consume such 

 rations, they would not be palatable and palatability is an im- 

 portant factor. 



From what has been said, I think it will be evident that a 

 large amount of protein is necessary in the ration, and that to 

 supply this our foods cannot be fed indiscriminately. We must 

 feed those foods high in digestible protein with those low in diges- 

 tible protein ; in other words, we must balance our ration by com- 

 bining materials high in protein with those low in protein. Then 

 we must combine our common grains with some roughage low in 

 protein, or we must combine our comman by-products high in 

 protein, or we must combine our common grains with some rough- 

 age high in protein. Which shall it be? In other words, shall 

 we grow our own protein on the farm or shall we pay some cor- 

 poration a high price for their by-products ? 



The common method at present is to use such concentrates as 

 bran, gluten meal gluten feed, oil meal, etc. This necessitates a 

 large outlay on the part of the dairyman and if he can raise his 

 protein at home in the form of legumes, why not do so ? 



The question now arises, can we substitute these legumes 

 for the high-priced concentrates, such as bran, gluten meal, etc. 

 Lyook again at the tables and you will see that the composition of 

 bran and alfalfa hay are not very different as far as digestible 

 nutrients are concerned. Theoretically, they are nearly equal, 

 pound for pound. They can be substituted in theory : How is 

 it in practice? The Tennessee Experiment Station finds by ex- 

 periment that alfalfa can be substituted for bran in the ordinary 

 ration to a very good advantage. A number of cows were fed 

 a ration of silage, bran and cotton-seed meal. Another lot was 

 fed silage, alfalfa and cotton-seed meal. The best results were 

 obtained from the ration containing the alfalfa. From the ration 

 containing the bran milk was produced at a cost of 7.1 cents per 

 gallon, while from the ration containing the alfalfa, milk was pro- 

 duced at a cost of 5.7 cents per gallon. (Bran $20.00, alfalfa 

 $10.00.) Practically the same amount of bran and alfalfa were 

 fed during the experiment. They estimated that there was a 



