COW FOODS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 421, 9 December 1911, Page 6

COW FOODS.

Professor K. Harcourt, in a lecture before the Dairymen's Association of Western Ontario, said foods that are fed in an immature state arc liable to considerable variation. The place of grain in a ration is to increase tne proportion of protein and other digestible materials, or, in other words, to make the ration more concentrated. It is generally agreed that cows of lOOOlbs weight need approximately 161b of total nutrients daily. Animals that are thin in flesh, especially when fresh in milk, can consume -it) or olb more to advantage. Of these Hilb approximately 2.51b of prolein is necessary in order to unable the cow to produce large and continuous yields of milk. If a cow is fed all hay she cannot eat enough of the food to obtain the amount of nutrients men- j tioned. Thus suppose a cow should be \ fed all she can consume of any palat j able, dry, coarse fodder, such as good I hay, she would have at her disposal j the following digestible nutrients, | approximately: --- Protein 1.41b, fat j 0.41b, carbohydrates 12.41b, total ) 72.21b. It is clear that such ration j lacks in protein, as well as in total I digestible matter. In order to over- I come these deficiencies recourse is j had to the concentrated feeds, rich in j protein, and sufficient is added to in- | crease the protein to the desired j amount. This in brief is the function | of grains and concentrated by-products in the ration. It is, of course, evident that the cereal grains, as corn, cats, wheat, etc., are not sufficiently rich in protein to very materially increase is proportion in the diet. But these foods are rich in nitrogen-free-extraet | or carbohydrates, that are easily digested and are very useful when fed along with the coarser foods which contain much fire. Pea meal, linseed meal, gluten feed, wheat bran, and middlings are foods rich in protein, and are, therefore, most valuable components for a ra-

tion intended for dairy cows. On the other hand it is evident Unit; oat hulls, dried beet pulp. corn. bran. and such low-; rade materials cannot build up the protein side of. a ration. They are also entirely unfit, to be used as substitutes for linseed meal, gluten meal, gluten feed, and such nitrogenous materials.