The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1900-07-06


portion OF the food constitutes the
great building material of the body. It
builds up muscle, sinew ligaments and
cartilage Of the body, casein and albu-
min Of milk and probably large part
of the fat It may also be used to build
up fat in the body and to produce heat.
The fats and carbohydrates are very
similar in their action. They cannot
be used to form muscle or other nitrog-
enous parts of the body, but are large
~ used as q fuel or may be stored up
as fat, serving as a reserve force for
heat and energy. From this it Will be
seen that the proportion of the various
nutrients, the building material on one
hand and fuel and fat producing mate
rial on the other, should vary with the
purpose for which the animal is kept.
A part of the food of every animal is
needed to keep up the vital functions
of the body or to keep the animal ma
chine in repair. A part is used as fuel,
and the remainder should be available
to build up products. The food that
will serve best for keeping up the vital
functions is composed quite largely Of
the carbohydrates and fat, or the heat
producing materials, but as the amount
of production increases proportion Of
protein must increase relatively faster
than the carbohydrates and fat.
A cow that Is producing large guam
THY of milk needs more building mate
rial protein) than one that is nearly
dry. Experiments are showing more
and more clearly that protein Is espe-
cially valuable in milk production, and
the best practical feeders are rapidly
tending toward the same conclusion.
1t seems logical therefore that rations
for milk production should vary in the
amount and proportion of protein they
contain according to milk flow Of the
cows to be fed. In the past it has been
common to base feeding 'standards'
or formulas for milk COWS mainly on
the live weight on the assumption that
the food requirements vary mainly
with the size of the animal. Late re-
search, however, shows that 1t Is more
logical to base ratiOns on the milk flow.
Animals that do not vary more than
200 pounds in live weight will not diff
fer greatly in their food requirements
as far as the animal machine is con-
cerned. but if these animals differ 10 or
Is pounds per day in milk now their
demands for food will be very differ
ent. Many feeders in the past have
used one grain mixture and have va
ricd the amount fed in accordance with
the milk yield In order to base feed
ing formula on the milk flow in such q
way as to increase the protein for the
heavier milk producers it will be neces-
Sary to have two grain ratiOns, one to
be fed to all animals Of the herd and
one for the heavier milk producers.
The first may be called basal or fOun-
CiatiOn ration and the second protein
mixture, because it is made up Of feeds
rich in protein or heterogeneous material,
such as c0tt0nseed, linseed, gluten and
pea meals, and should be fed in addi-
/ ton to the basal. BY feeding in this
way the heavier milk producers not on
II get q larger ration, but have q larger
proportion of the materials that are
most useful in milk production. Feed
ing formulas constructed on the basis
of milk production have been proposed
by at least one German authority and
are being advocated by some American
writers. Scientific research is fast
/ showing US the great Importance of
protein or building material, and it
seems very probable that in the future
feeding formulas or standard rations'
| for dairy COWS will be based mainly
| upon milk production.