1911 
201 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
FEEDING PROBLEMS. 
Under this heading we endeavor to give advice 
and suggestions about feeding mixtures of grains 
and fodders. No definite rules are given, but the 
advice is based upon experience and average 
analyses of foods. By ‘-protein” is meant the 
elements in the food which go to make muscle or 
lean meat. “Carbohydrates” comprise the starch 
sugar, etc., which make fat and provide fuel for 
the body, while “fat” is the pure oil found in 
foods. Dry matter” means the weight of actual 
food left in fodder or grain when all the water is 
driven off. A “narrow ration” means one In which 
the proportion of protein to carbohydrates is close 
—a “wide” ration means one which shows a larger 
proportion of carbohydrates. 
A Balanced Ration. 
Will you give figures for a balanced ration 
from the following feeds? Corn and cob 
meal, ground oats, ground rye, mangels, 
cornstalks and mixed hay. Also above 
feeds without mangels. If needed, any kind 
of mill feed can be procured in a nearby 
village. D . b. b. 
New York. 
Here is a balanced ration compounded 
for large cows weighing about 1,200 
pounds each and giving 30 to 40 pounds 
of milk : Digestible 
Feeding stuff. 
Dry 
Pro- 
Garb. 
matter 
tein 
and fat 
12 lbs. mixed hay. . . 
10.45 
.5066 
5.55 
10 lbs. corn stover. . 
G.OO 
.17 
3.4 
4 lbs. corn and cob 
meal . 
3.4 
.170 
2.66 
3 lbs. ground oats. 
2.07 
.276 
1.704 
3 lbs. dried dis- 
tiller’s grains... 
2.70 
.744 
1.656 
3 lbs. cotton - seed 
meal. 
2.70 
1.116 
1.33 
Nutritive ratio 1 :5 
28.04 
.4. 
2.988 
16.300 
For smaller cows feed a smaller 
amount of feed mixed in about the 
same proportions. I have not included 
ground rye in this ration as it is not 
required. In practice I would feed all 
the hay and corn stover the cows will 
eat and then mix the corn and cob meal, 
ground oats, dried distillers’ grains and 
cotton-seed meal together thoroughly in 
nearly equal parts and feed each cow 
according to her individual requirements. 
You can feed your mangels right along 
with this ration and when they are 
gone you should try some dried beet 
pulp for succulence. The worst fault 
with this ration is its cost, which could 
be greatly reduced if you had some 
clover or Alfalfa hay to feed with it. 
Milk Ration. 
Will you advise me as to the ration for 
milch cows, medium size, some fresh and 
some strippers? We sell the milk. The 
following are the feeds that we have or can 
conveniently purchase: Corn silage, mixed 
hay, cornmeal, hominy feed, wheat bran, 
mixed or ship feed, gluten feed, cotton-seed 
meal, very high in price; brewers’ grains. 
Digestible 
Dry 
Pro- 
Carb. 
matter 
tein 
and fat 
7.35 
.315 
4.515 
S.71 
.422 
4.625 
.89 
.079 
.764 
1.79 
.244 
.906 
4.GO 
.785 
2.39 
1.84 
.744 
.888 
25.18 
2.589 
14.088 
dry. We have some oh the latter on hand 
and would like to use some. Can the brew¬ 
ers’ grains be profitably fed to work horses 
and a colt? Is it best to soak the grains in 
water over night? e. o. n. 
New York. 
Here is a formula for a good balanced 
ration which contains the proper ingred¬ 
ients for the production of milk in largq 
quantities: 
Feeding stuff. 
35 lbs. silage. 
10 lbs. mixed hay. . 
1 lb. cornmeal. 
2 lbs. wheat bran.. 
5 lbs. dried brew¬ 
ers' grains. 4.00 
2 lbs. cotton - seed 
meal . 1.84 
Nutritive ration 1 :5.4. 
Dried brewers’ grains can also be fed 
to work horses and colts if they can be 
purchased at a reasonable price, but I 
would advise mixing the ration equal 
parts of dried brewers’ grains, ground 
oats and cornmeal for horses which are 
working very hard. It would be advis¬ 
able to soak the grains as directed for 
cows, but this is not necessary for horses 
under ordinary conditions. c. S. g. 
Milk Ration ; Weaning Calf. 
1. IIow can I feed the following feed stuffs 
to. fresh cows to the best advantage, object 
being plenty of rich milk? I have corn¬ 
meal, bran, malt sprouts, middlings, Timothy 
and clover seed, dry corn fodder which I 
cut with a silage machine, and stock-food 
molasses, or does it make any difference in 
the quantity of milk if the feed is„made 
into a mash, or should it be fed dry, giv¬ 
ing the cows plenty of water to drink? 2. 
At what age is it advisable to wean a calf 
from its mother, and what should it be 
raised on after weaned? k. g. 
1. From the feeding stuffs mentioned 
I have compounded the following ra¬ 
tion, leaving out some unnecessary 
feeds: 
Dry Digestible Carb’s 
Feeding stuff. matter. Protein, and fat. 
Fiftten lbs. mixed hay 
with clover .13.05 
Ten lbs. cut corn fod- 
.93 
6.9 
der . 5.8 
.25 
3.73 
Five lbs. malt sprouts. 4.50 
.93 
2.045 
Three lbs. wheat bran. 2.64 
.366 
1.359 
One lb. molasses.79 
.091 
.595 
26.78 
2.567 
14.629 
Nutritive ratio 1 :5.7. 
You mention Timothy and clover seed 
in your inquiry, but as these seeds are 
not usually fed to cows I have assumed 
that you mean hav instead of seed. 
While the ration given above is a little 
too wide for best results, it cannot be 
made much narrower without the addi¬ 
tion of some feed carrying a high per¬ 
centage of protein or cutting down the 
amount of corn fodder. The question 
of whether it will pay to wet feed for 
cows has been under discussion for a 
long time without being positively 
settled. It all seems to depend upon the 
cost of labor required to prepare the 
feed, the quality and kind of feed used, 
and the condition of the cows. Dry 
feed requires more chewing than wet 
feed, therefore it is naturally supposed 
to be better masticated, but as cows 
chew their feed twice this objection to 
wet feed is overcome by the fact that 
wet feed is more palatable and therefore 
induces cows to consume more water 
than they would naturally drink. Per¬ 
sonally I favor wetting the feed if you 
have the facilities and time to do so. 
2. The best time to wean a calf is 
just as soon as it is born. If allowed 
to run with the cow even for only a 
day or two it often causes much trouble 
that could easily be avoided by never 
allowing them together. Feed the calf 
its mother’s milk for at least five days 
for large strong calves and two weeks 
to a month for jerseys. Then gradually 
substitute skim-milk as the calf becomes 
strong enough to digest it without caus¬ 
ing indigestion. With proper care at 
the end of four to six weeks no fresh 
milk will be required, as the calf will 
grow nicely on a ration of skim-milk 
mixed with a little buttermilk and a 
small amount of grain, such as wheat 
middlings, ground oats and a little 
hominy or cornmeal. c. s. G. 
Brewers’ Grains and Cob Meal. 
I have just purchased a farm on which 
are nine cows in milk, being fed wet 
brewers’ grains and cob meal, with hay 
and shredded cornstalks for roughage. The 
brewery privilege calls for 15 bushels at 
10 cents per bushel per week. I am not 
familiar with weight of same. The dis¬ 
tance hauled is nine miles. It may be had 
only one day each week and is salted to 
preserve until used. The present supply of 
roughage seems short. Grain here (other 
than brewers’ grains) seems easier to buy 
than hay or cornstalks. The hay is mostly 
Red-top. I would like to know if under 
the above circumstances it would pay me 
to continue to use brewers’ grains at all? 
If considered best to retain brewers’ grains, 
what additional feed to cob meal would 
balance my ration? How is the nutritive 
ratio calculated knowing, the per cent of 
dry matter, protein, carbohydrates and fats 
in each food stuff? What State or Gov¬ 
ernment publications (bulletins, etc.,) 
would aid me in feeding cows for milk to 
the best advantage now and in the future 
when I may have more control over my 
condition in Winter than I now have, i. e., 
when I can plant for myself for Winter 
and not buy another’s plan? j. w. k 
Wilbraharn, Mass. 
Situated as you are nine miles from 
the brewery I cannot see how you can 
make it pay to haul grains so far, es¬ 
pecially if you have to make the trip 
for only 15 bushels. If you could get 
a full load and had cows enough to use 
it up before it spoiled you could per¬ 
haps work to advantage if you have 
good roads and everything favorable. 
While salting may preserve the grains 
satisfactorily during cold weather, you 
will find this plan will not work so well 
during the warm Summer months, when 
you could not add salt enough to the 
grains to preserve them without giving 
your cows an excessive amount of salt 
in their feed, so I cannot advise its 
continuance. You should purchase such 
feeds as cotton-seed and oil meal, dry 
brewers’ grains and dry distillers’ grains 
and dried beet pulp if available to feed 
with your Red-top hay. Your team can 
be profitably employed at least part of 
the time until Spring hauling all the 
manure you can get on to a piece of land 
to be plowed under in the Spring for 
corn. Be sure to raise all the corn you 
can, and put it into a silo in September, 
and your feeding problem next Winter 
can be solved much simpler and cheaper. 
Do not neglect to start some clover 
and Alfalfa if you expect to produce 
milk cheaply. A balanced ration is one 
which conforms closely to a recognized 
standard in the amounts of digestible 
dry matter, protein, carbohydrates and 
fat which it contains. The nutritive 
ratio is the relation the digestible pro¬ 
tein in a ration has to the digestible 
carbohydrates plus 2% times the di¬ 
gestible fat, and is found by dividing 
the amount of digestible carbohydrates 
and fat by the amount of digestible pro¬ 
tein. To find the amount of digestible 
protein in a ration you first multiply 
the number of pounds of each feed used 
by the per cent of digestible protein in 
each feed and add the results. Proceed 
in the same way with the carbohydrates 
and fat except that the percentage of 
fat is multiplied by 2%. before adding it 
to the carbohydrates, because fat pro¬ 
duces 2% times as much heat as other 
carbohydrates. Some good books on 
feeding are Henry’s “Feeds and Feed¬ 
ing” and Jordan’s “Feeding of Animals.” 
C. S. G. 
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