Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1913-01-15
DIGEST
OF EXPERIMENT STATION
BULLETINS.
Prepared Weekly for
THE KEOWEE COURIER
By J. Linn Ladd.

Economic Factors i'm Cattle Feeding.
Bulletin 159 and Circulars 1853 and
164, all issued by the Illinois sta
ton, treat of phases Of the above.
subject, and all come to hand under
one cover.
Bulletin 159 gives results Of exper-
iments with two lots Of dairy COWS,
one fed balanced and the other an
unbalanced ration. 1t is explained
that Il balanced ration is one having
the proper proportions of protein,
carbohydrates and fats; while an un-
balanced ration is one that contains
too much or too little Of one OF these
classes Of nutrients.
Protein is abundant in cotton seed
meal, linseed meal, tankage, gluten,
wheat bran, oats, peas, beans, pea
legumes. Carbohydrates largely pre-
dominate in corn, corn silage, sor-
ghum, and all grass hays.
Many actual feeding tests in vari-
Gus countries have demonstrated that
we'll balanced ration for dairy cows
contains 5 u to 6 pounds of carbohy-
drates for every pound OF protein;
and the analytical chemists have as
certained and tabulated the number
of pounds Of digestible protein, car
bohydrates and crude fibre per ton
in all the feed-stuffs used in feeding
farm animals. With these tables and
directions found in bulletins and
standard works on stock feeding any
intelligent farmer can compound a
suitable ration for his stock. Or any
farmer who will write the director OF
his State experiment station, telling
him what feed stuffs he has and what
stock he wishes to feed and for what
purpose, will receive directions for
compounding economic rations for
them.
But just as the brick mason must
have the proper proportions of lime,
sand and cement in his mortar in or
der to make strong wall, and just
90 IhS "llS IluSI nave IuS TlRnC
proportions of sour milk and soda to
make good biscuits, so the cow must
have the right proportions Of protein
and carbohydrates in her ration to do
her best in producing milk at the
lowest possible cost
Indeed any animal must have
nrcpc: mixture ui these nutrients to
thrive. A COW fed on protein alone
will soon die. and cow fed on car
bohydrates alone will die in less time.
In these Illinois experiments two
lots of cows Of equal merit and milk
producing capacity were fed alike
till all were gotten in good condition
for fair test. Then Lot was fed
a balanced ration of 1:6-that is, 1
pound digestible protein to every
pounds Of carbohydrates. Lot 2 was
fed on unbalanced ration of Iii.
The daily ration of each cow in Lot
l was so pounds corn silage, 8
pounds clover hay, 4 2-3 pounds glu-
ten feed and 8 1-3 pounds corn meal
Lot 2 was given daily ration for
each COW Of 80 pounds corn silage,
pounds timothy hay, pounds clover
hay and pounds corn meal. In both
cases all the feed given was sound
and Of high quality. 1t will be no.
ticed that each COW in both lots re-
ceived the same number of pounds
OF silage, hay and grain; SO the only
difference was in the nature of the
ration. In the ration of Lot 1, the
clover hay and gluten feed were rich
in protein; while the 3 pounds Of
clover hay was the only constituent
Of the ration given to Lot 2 that was
at all rich in protein.
The test continued for 131 days,
and during that time Lot 1 gave 49,
553 pounds more milk than Lot 2,
worth $15S.7O, a difference of $17.63
per COW.
For each 100 pounds Of milk pro-
duced Lot 1 consumed 541h pounds
of digestible feed, while Lot 2 con-
sumed within a fraction of 72 pounds
of digestible feed for each 100
pounds Of milk produced
Further, the cows in Lot remain
ed in good condition throughout,
while many cows in Lot were often
"off their feed" and all of them lost
flesh and came out of the test in poor
condition.
Circulars 1853 and 1854, by the same
station, are two OF a series dealing