274 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



producing it will do no good to give her more feed. It does not 

 pay to give a cow producing 20 pounds" daily the same amount of 

 grain as one producing 40 or 50 pounds. If this is done the low 

 milker is overfed and will give just as much milk if given less 

 grain. 



Amount of Grain and Roughage to feed. — The only eco- 

 nomical way is to feed cows according to the amount of milk 

 produced. There certainly is anything but good judgment be- 

 hind the common practice in many herds of feeding all the ani- 

 mals the same amount of grain. Under such conditions the high 

 producing cows are underfed and the low milkers receive too 

 much. 



The cow should be fed practically all the roughness she will 

 eat up clean. The difference in rations fed to different animals 

 should be mostly in the grain. The following may serve as a 

 general feeding guide: 



I . — Feed all the roughness they will eat up clean at all times. 



2. — Feed one pound of grain a day for each ponud of but- 

 ter-fat produced a week, or one pound grain for each three 

 pounds of 5% milk or 4 pounds of 3.5% milk. 



3. — Feed all the cows will take without gaining in weight. 



The Balanced Ration. — The ordinary pasture grasses, espec- 

 ially blue. grass when in the growing state, contain the proper 

 portion of nutrients to enable a dairy cow to produce the maxi- 

 mum amount of milk of which she is capable. The winter ra- 

 tion, on the other hand, is liable to have these nutrients out of 

 proportion. This is one point wherein common practice falls far 

 short of continuing the summer conditions throughout the 

 winter. The feeding of a ration not properly balanced is one of 

 the most common mistakes made on the average farm. 



All properly balanced rations must contain protein, carbo- 

 hydrates and fat, and no amount of carbohydrates or fat can 

 take the place in the body of protein. Since these three kinds of 

 solids must be present in order to form milk, it is necessary to 

 furnish them in the feed in sufficient quantities and in about the 

 right proportion, so there will be no loss. When this is done, 

 the ration is properly balanced. If a cow be supplied with suf- 



