FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 229 



THE FEEDING OF DAIRY COWS, 



By Helmer Rabild, H. P. Davis and W. K. Brainerd, of the Dairy Division 

 United States Department of Agriculture. 



Successful feeding of dairy cows from an economic stand- 

 point involves the providing- of an abundant supply of palatable, 

 nutritious feed, at the minimum cost per unit of feed, and sup- 

 plying it to the cow in such way as to secure the largest produc- 

 tion for feed consumed. This bulletin will attempt to give some 

 factors involved in the economical selection of feeds and to guide 

 the producer in supplying them to the cows. 



Liberal Feeding Necessary For Profit. 



The dairy cow has been likened by many writers to a ma- 

 chine or a manufacturing plant. This comparison can be ap- 

 plied literally, with certain reservations. A certain proportion 

 of the power furnished any machine is used for running the ma- 

 chine itself and is not in any sense productive. In a steam en- 

 gine this is represented in the exhaust steam in heat which es- 

 capes without producing steam, and in the friction of the work- 

 ing parts of the engine. In the manufacturing plant it is repre- 

 sented by the managerical, the clerical, and sales forces. These 

 forces, while necessary for the successful operation of the busi- 

 ness, are, in a sense, unproductive. 



In the feeding of the dairy cow this overhead expense, this 

 unproductive force, is termed the ''maintenance ration," and is 

 that portion of the feed given the cow which is used by her to, 

 perform her own functions, such as heating the body, pumping 

 the blood, digesting the feed, and moving the body from place to 

 place. This feed, from a productive standpoint, is entirely lost 

 to the farmer. The cow can produce without loss of body weight 

 only after she has exacted this toll of maintenance. Having re- 

 ceived feed enough to maintain her, practically all the feed she 



