The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1900-07-12

There, You see. you have almost the
theoretical standard set by Wolff. 1t
is o little short, however, in carbohy.
drates and dry matter, and, if You wish,
You can add , pounds cotton-seed hulls,
which. when you have calculated it out
and added the results to the proper col.
umns, will increase the dry matter to
"a. IL pounds and the carbohy drates to
1881 pounds. but will only add .03 to
the fat, making it 80 of a pound, and
will not Quire add 1-l00 to the protein.
So with this addition you have a practi.
cally theoretical ration for a cow of
1000 pounds weight giving milk. You
will see by reference to the table that
she requires almost as rich and nour.
ishins food. per 1000 pounds weight,
as heavily worked OK; that is because
she is producing milk. as well as main.
tanning the body heat and carrying on
the vital functions. Suppose, however,
your cow only weighs 800 pounds in.
stead of 1000. you can economic by
giving her 80 per cent of each of the
food stuffs, or 6-l0 pounds OF pea hay
and IL pounds of rye fodder and so on.
II is not to be- understood that a ration
will not answer which does not strictly
coincide with VOLTS standards. These
standards are guide to help to ra.
tional feeding. and reasonably close
approximation to them is what is de.
sired. The intelligent feeder will of
course continue TO use his common sense.
Judgment and observation. Thus diff.
ferent cows show a different capacity
to appropriate food and differ in the
amount of milk produced when in full
flow. Again while a strict adherence
to the standard might produce the
greatest amount of milk say, yet de.
parture from it might under certain
conditions. yield better money return,
on account of variations in the price of
feed stuffs- OF course judgement and
common sense must always guide, but
other things being equal a balanced "a.
ton is of course to be always preferred.
A ration is said to be balanced" when
the dry matter. the protein, carbohy.
drates and fat, are mixed together in
the proportions given by VOLTS stand.
ards and to be unbalanced when it va.
ries considerably from those proper.
lions. There is always more latitude
allowed for variation in the dry mat
ter" than in the other ingredients; a
ration may vary several pounds in dry
matter when made up from different
food stuffs and yet have approximately
the desired relation between the pro.
tein and carbohydrates. The protein
may vary say in the ration for a milk
COW from 2.20 pounds to 81 and still be
called balanced ration, the carbohy.
drates from IL to IA pounds and the fat
from A to LOO pound in the dairy COW
ration and still be considered a bal.
anced ration. Still the experience of
the most successful feeders is that
nearer the ration approaches the stand.
ard, other things being equal, the bet.
ter the results.
You will find both profit and intel.
lectual exercise in figuring out balanced
rations for your stock in long evenings
when you have nothing else to do. /
will help you figure one more ration for
your dairy cow and then leave you to
do your own figuring for the future.
Let us suppose you are caught with.
out any hay or green food at all and
only have on hand cotton seed meal,
cotton seed hulls and corn and cob