THE BALANCED RATION
No feeder can learn to use alfalfa, or in fact any forage or grain, in the most economical way until he understands somewhat the compounding of a balanced ration. All foodstuffs for either man or beast are, as already stated, made up of three classes of substances—namely, protein or proteids, carbohydrates and fats. The animal’s digestive and assimilative organs are so constructed that it cannot use these three classes of substances interchangeably; in other words, an animal fed wholly upon any one of these three would be in process of gradual starvation. Given in the proportions needed to best supply the vital organs of the body, these substances become the sustenance for animal life and growth. The protein builds up the brain, nerves, muscles and other tissues in which the life force is active, and without protein there would be no life.
To balance a ration for domestic animals is to so adjust the quantity of digestible proteids, fats and carbohydrates it contains that the animal economy may use each without waste. The balanced ration means an economical ration, allowing the digestive organs to work at their highest efficiency; an unbalanced ration is one in which one of the three classes of food substances is in excess, or is deficient. Fed such a ration, the animal retaliates upon its owner by failure to digest the excess, which is worse than wasted; for the feeding of any class of substances in excess adds to the labor of the digestive organs and reduces their efficiency.