FARMERS EARNINGS IN SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA 
31 
With corn worth 90 cents a bushel and bran $40 a ton, a farmer 
growing the feeds listed could sell part of his corn and buy bran 
instead. He could substitute 800 pounds of bran for 1,000 pounds 
of corn, and then feed 5]4 pounds of corn and 4 3^ pounds of bran 
per day. His ration would then have fewer therms of net energy — 
2,913 — but there would be 298 pounds of digestible protein. Such a 
ration under Chester County conditions gave an average milk yield 
of about 4,600 pounds, so there would be an increase of 500 pounds of 
milk by merely substituting bran for part of the corn, with no addi- 
tional feed cost. 
The ration could be still further improved by using high protein 
feeds in place of bran. Allowing $50 per ton for buckwheat mid- 
dlings and $64 per ton for cottonseed meal, 400 pounds of middlings 
and 250 pounds of cottonseed meal would together cost about as 
much as the 800 pounds of bran. Each cow would then be getting 
a ton each of clover and timothy hay, 1,000 pounds of corn, and 650 
pounds of the high-protein feeds yearly. This ration contains 3,012 
therms of net energy, including 384 pounds of digestible protein. 
The average yield in Chester County from such a ration was about 
5,300 pounds per cow — 1,200 pounds more than from the corn ration, 
and 700 pounds more than from the corn-bran ration, both of which 
cost practically as much. 
In many cases in this area men were feeding timothy who might 
sell the timothy and buy alfalfa, or grow alfalfa instead. The 
economy of this change as far as the cows are concerned can be shown 
by substituting alfalfa hay for the timothy in the last ration. The 
total ration would then contain 482 pounds of digestible protein and 
have a net energy value of 2,836 therms. As shown by the milk 
production on the farms studied, average cows fed this ration pro- 
duced about 5,900 pounds per year under Chester County conditions. 
The feed cost of the milk from the cows fed the ration with a 
protein-energy ration of 1 to 5.9 would be only $1.35 per hundred- 
weight, as compared with $1.90 for milk from cows fed the ration 
with a ratio of 1 to 11.9. The feed cost per 100 pounds of milk goes 
down rather regularly as the protein content of the feed goes up. 
Table 27 illustrates the great importance of feeding the cows a 
properly balanced ration. 
Table 27. — Estimated feed cost of producing milk with various hypothetical rations 
Quantity of ration 
Grain, in pounds 
Hay, in tons 
Net 
energy 
Digest- 
ible 
protein 
Protein- 
energy 
ratio 1 
Value of 
feed 2 
Probable 
milk 
yield 
Feed 
cost per 
hundred- 
weight 
of milk 
Corn, 2,000. 
Corn, 1,000. 
Bran, 800.. 
Corn, 1,000 
Cottonseed meal, 250 
Buckwheat middlings, 400. 
Corn, 1,000 
Cottonseed meal, 250 
Buckwheat middlings, 400. 
(Clover, 1... 
(Timothy, 1. 
Clover, 1... 
Timothy, 1. 
iclover, 1... 
[Timothy, 1. 
1 Clover, 1... 
[ Alfalfa, 1... 
Therms 
} ^ 3, 344 
} 2, 913 
} 3, 012 
} 2, 836 
Pounds 
282 
298 
384 
482 
1:11.9 
1:9.8 
1:7.8 
1:5.9 
Dollars 
78.12 
78.06 
80.06 
8tt 06 
Pounds 
4,110 
4,610 
5,315 
5,933 
Dollars 
1.90 
1.69 
1.51 
1.35 
1 Ratio of pounds of digestible true protein to therms of net energy. 
2 Corn, $0.90 per bushel, bran $40 per ton, buckwheat middlings $50 per ton. cottonseed meal $6-1 per ton, 
hay $18 per ton, pasture $10 per head per year. 
3 The therms and digestible true protein are computed from ref. (12), tables on pp. 749 to 751, and ref. (£), 
p. 13. 
