MAINTENANCE RATIONS OF SHEEP. 



49 



Maintenance ration of sheep — Henneberg, Fleischer, and Muller. 



Live weight kilograms— 34. 20 



Digestible organic matter per day grams__ 562. 94 



Gain by animal : 



Protein grams__ 1.94 



Fat . grams__ 43.60 



Therms. 



Metabolizable energy of ration 0.56294X3.5 1.970 



Metabolizable energy equivalent to gain — 



Therm. 



Protein, 0.00194X5.7 0.01106 



Fat, 0.0436X9.5 .41420 



.42526-^-0. 50___ .851 



Metabolizable energy for maintenance 1. 119 



This result is equivalent to 1.441 therms per 50 kilograms or 1.350 therms per 

 100 pounds live weight. 



Hagemann, 1 from the results of a digestion and metabolism experiment and of 

 42 short 2 respiration periods with the Zuntz type of apparatus on a mature 

 sheep averaging 50.33 kilograms live weight, computes an approximate energy 

 balance which may be put in the following form, assuming that 50 per cent of 

 the surplus metabolizable energy of the mixed ration might be recovered as 

 gain: 



Maintenance ration of sheep — Hagemann. 





Income. 



Outgo. 



Feed: 



Alfalfa hay 



Therms. 

 2.181 

 1.524 



Therms. 



Corn meal 





Uneaten 



0.009 



1.332 

 .146 



.914 

 1.304 



Excreta: 



Feces 









Gain: Therm. 



1.44 grams protein 0.008 



46.20 grams fat 439 



. 447 h- 0. 50 











3.705 



3.705 



In addition to the foregoing experiments there are a number of digestion 

 experiments by Wolff, in which the live weight of the animals was approxi- 

 mately maintained. In 1871 3 two series of experiments were made upon 

 the relative digestive power of three breeds of sheep for an approximate 

 maintenance ration. A comparison of the live weights of the animals is possible 

 only for the second series, in which the ration consisted of clover hay and 

 potatoes. The total organic matter digested per day and head and the average 

 live weights at the beginning and end of the experiment were as given in the 



J Archiv fur (Anatomie und) Physiologie, 1899, Snppl., p. 138. 



2 Usually not exceeding 30 to 40 minutes. 



3 Landwirtschaftliche Jahrbucher, vol. 1, p. 533. 



8489°— Bull. 143—12 4 



