MAINTENANCE OF COWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18710, 16 May 1924, Page 12

MAINTENANCE OF COWS.

RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS.

Mr. J. J. Hills, in a Vermont Station Bulletin, reports the results of a series of trials carried on from 1907 to 1920 to determine the maintenance requirements of dry farrow cows, dry pregnant cows, and pregnant and non-pregnant cows while producing milk. The rations fed in these experiments were the same as those fed in the experiment reported, in Vermont Station Bulletin 225. The. results' of 324 records on 61 animals, as reported in that bulletin, are added to the data obtained in this test, which includes' the results 'on 20 cows.

A review of the literature and "a discussion of the development and comparative requirements of the different feeding standards for dairy cattle are given, and compared with the result obtained in these experiments. It is, the author's belief that the standard for maintenance as recommended by Armsby and Eckles allowing 0.51b. digestible true protein and 6 terms energy, provides sufficient digestible protein and total digestible nutrients for the maintenance of a 10001b. dry nonpregnant cow. whereas the Haecker Savage, modified Wolff-Lehman, and WoUV Humphrey standards are too liberal. The digestible protein requirements for milk production, according to the Haecker, Armsby. and Eckles standards, are nearly irr accord with the results of this test, but in. the: Haecker standard the total digestible nutrients allowed is too high and in the Armsby standard the digestible dry matter (calculated) is too low. The Savage standard is too high for both the digestible protein material, as it is for the total digestible nutrients.