| Total Yield Green Forage per acre | Dry Matter per acre | Total Protein per acre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pounds | Pounds | Pounds | |
| Alfalfa | 36,540 | 8,258 | 2,214 |
| Corn (entire plant) | 24,000 | 5,040 | 408 |
| Red clover | 14,000 | 4,088 | 616 |
| Barnyard millet | 16,000 | 4,000 | 384 |
| Crimson clover | 14,000 | 2,674 | 434 |
| Cowpeas | 16,000 | 2,624 | 384 |
| Oats and peas | 14,000 | 2,107 | 363 |
| Dry Matter | Total Protein | ||
| Pounds | Pounds | ||
| 1 ton alfalfa hay contains | 1,809 | 265 | |
| 1 ton red clover hay contains | 1,694 | 246 | |
| 1 ton oats and peas contains | 1,375 | 175 | |
| 1 ton timothy contains | 1,736 | 118 | |
| 1 ton wheat bran contains | 1,762 | 308 | |
| 1 ton wheat middlings contains | 1,758 | 312 | |
| 1 ton rye bran contains | 1,768 | 294 | |
| 1 ton oats contains | 1,780 | 236 | |
| 1 ton rice meal contains | 1,796 | 240 | |
| 1 ton buckwheat bran contains | 1,790 | 248 | |
At the Colorado station (Bul. No. 26) Prof. W. W. Cooke compared an acre of dent (Golden Beauty) corn, planted May 16 and harvested September 21, with returns from an acre of alfalfa on an adjoining plat, three years seeded. The corn crop was a fair one, and including ears and stalks weighed 15,500 pounds, containing 35.62 per cent or 5539 pounds of dry matter. The alfalfa yielded three cuttings of hay weighing respectively 4600, 3350 and 3250 pounds, or 5.6 tons, containing 10,304 pounds of dry matter. But, as Professor Cooke says, this is not quite a fair comparison, for a pound of dry matter from the corn crop is more digestible and has a higher feeding value than an equal amount from the alfalfa. The corn crop contained 3605 pounds of digestible feeding material, while the alfalfa crop contained 5611 pounds, or a little more than half as much again. The corn crop per acre in feeding value was equivalent to three and a half tons of alfalfa hay.
The total digestible nutrients of the two crops are presented in the following table:
| TOTAL | DIGESTIBLE | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corn | Alfalfa | Corn | Alfalfa | |
| Pounds | Pounds | Pounds | Pounds | |
| Dry matter | 5,539 | 10,304 | 3,605 | 5,611 |
| Albuminoids | 405 | 1,602 | 296 | 1,198 |
| Starch, sugar, etc. | 3,263 | 4,782 | 2,186 | 3,114 |
| Fiber | 1,472 | 2,800 | 1,060 | 1,198 |
| Fat (ether extract) | 84 | 246 | 63 | 101 |
| Ash | 315 | 829 | .... | .... |
COMPARATIVE VALUES OF ALFALFA HAY AND OTHER FEED STUFFS FOR PROTEIN
| Feedstuff | Value per ton when prairie hay is worth per ton— | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $2.00 | $3.00 | $4.00 | ||||
| Alfalfa hay (average) | $6 | .05 | $9 | .08 | $12 | .11 |
| Red clover hay | 3 | .88 | 5 | .82 | 7 | .77 |
| Orchard-grass hay | 2 | .74 | 4 | .11 | 5 | .48 |
| Millet hay | 2 | .57 | 3 | .85 | 5 | .14 |
| Timothy hay | 1 | .65 | 2 | .48 | 3 | .31 |
| Sorghum hay | 1 | .37 | 2 | .05 | 2 | .74 |
| Corn-fodder (stover) | 1 | .14 | 1 | .71 | 2 | .28 |
| Oat straw | .91 | 1 | .37 | 1 | .82 | |
| Wheat straw | .45 | .68 | .91 | |||
| Sugar beets | .62 | .94 | 1 | .25 | ||
| Mangel-wurzels | .57 | .85 | 1 | .14 | ||
| Alfalfa hay containing 12.9 per cent digestible protein | 7 | .36 | 11 | .05 | 14 | .73 |
| Wheat bran | 7 | .02 | 10 | .53 | 14 | .04 |
It is seen that the alfalfa yielded nearly twice as many pounds of dry matter as the corn, with the digestible nutrients far in the lead, and the protein of the alfalfa was three times that of the corn.
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.