Feed Ration Maths

The morning was frosty, and the herd was hungry.

"Breakfast time!" called Little Thunder, stamping his hooves to keep warm. "How much hay do we need?"

Suzy checked the feed chart on the shed wall. "Each cow needs one and a half bales of hay a day in winter. We have twelve cows."

Little Thunder counted on his hooves and got muddled. "That's... a lot?"

"Let's break it up," said Spike. "Twelve cows times one bale is twelve bales. Twelve cows times half a bale is six bales. Add them together."

"Eighteen bales!" said Little Thunder.

They loaded the bales onto the trailer. Then Suzy checked the water. "Each cow drinks about fifty litres a day. How much is that for twelve?"

Spike thought. "Fifty times ten is five hundred, and fifty times two is one hundred. Six hundred litres."

"The trough holds two hundred litres," said Little Thunder. "So we need to fill it..." He divided carefully. "Three times!"

Next came the special feed. Tokyo, the oldest cow, needed extra grain to stay strong. "She gets nought point seven five of a bucket," read Suzy.

"That's the same as three quarters," said Spike. "Fill the bucket to the third line out of four."

Finally, Little Thunder had a question. "If we have ninety bales in the shed and we use eighteen a day, how many days will it last?"

They worked it out together. Ninety divided by eighteen was five.

"Five days," said Suzy. "So we order more hay on Wednesday."

The herd munched happily. Little Thunder rubbed his tummy. "All this maths has made me hungry too."