THE VALUE OF WATER IN THE DAIRY COW’S RATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3215, 27 October 1915, Page 10

THE VALUE OF WATER IN THE DAIRY COW’S RATION.

A dairy-farmer, writing to the editor of Hoard’s Dairyman, is fully sensed with the value of water in the cow’s daily ration. He says, inter alia: —“I wonder how important is water in the bill of fare of the average dairy cow? I feel, from my own meagre experience and observation, that few of us, if any, appreciate the importance of this element. Some may have touched upon it, but it is not generally brought to the attention of dairymen that it is important to balance up a good meal of grain, hay, and silage with an abundant, everready supply of drinkable water. “Milk contains about 88 per cent, water. In every 1001 b of milk we take from the cow there is about, 881 b of it just plain water that old went down to the brook and got. Every breath she exhales carries out its per cent, of water, and water is just as vitally important to her welfare as is feed. I believe it has been found that human beings and animals can go longer without food than without water, I know* that in sickness everyone lives without much nourishment, but it is impossible to do so on a negligible quantity of water. We realise this when wo stop to think, but many of us fail to put this knowledge to practice in our dairy cattle _ feeding. . . . The cow that is just doing what she fools like, and is not pushing along with a good record, will drink in the morning ancV at night, or possibly once a day, and yield her little quota of milk. She will chew her cud in apparent content and thrive; hut the dairy cow that is making a record needs water, and plenty of it in attractive shape, as often as she wishes. “Most dairymen are in the business for what they can get out of it. Their yields of milk determine their profits to a large extent. If a cow does her part she must produce large quantities of milk, and we cannot expect It of her unless we give her

n chance. If we are to got big yields she must eat large quantities of feed. There is a limit beyond which the average cow will not go in consuming grain silage, or roughage unless she can quench her thirst and cool her mouth. One of the secrets of forcing any live stock is the getting them to drink heavily of good water at regular intervals, and the cow working at high pressure is no exception to this rule. We find dairy cows in warmer weather doing well. They pour down the milk. There are many reasons for a heavier flow at this time, but one important reason is that she is eating grass that is sappy with water, and that usually brooks and springs furnish cool water in abundance. Cool and cold weather knock down the yields both because some foedi is needed for heat maintenance and also because less water is drunk. I believe that the successful dairyman will study how to got more water regularly down his producers. The presence of the right amount of salt will help for many easons, and l one is that it makes the cow drink. I believe that we may feed too much salt, and it will work against heavy eating and large production; but salt is a most necessary part of the ration, because it makes the cow drink freely. If we think of it from the standpoint of causing heavy driniting, our thoughts will open to other ways of forcing her appetite. “In my own herd I watch the feeding carefully; I pay much attention to the feed my cows eat, for I know it will have as much as anything to do with the milkyield of the cows. I find how necessary water is every time I feed. Take cows that are coming gradually to high production. They do not take so much extra water at first; but as they eat more and more they want more and more water to wash it down. They do not eat well unless they drink well. If they can eat and drink, chew their cuds, get up, drink_ and eat again, a bumping big pail of milk awaits the milker. One of my' best cows. Dairymaid, is now coming to bigger production. She has not been doing what she ought to yet, because things didn’t seem to suit her. I have gotten her started at last, so that she keeps me carrying water to her olten, and the feed goes with the drinking water, and she is gradually crawling up 16lb, 16glb, 171 b, and now 18£lb of 6 per cent, milk, and she will do still batter and hold it if I can give her attractive feed with clean, attractive water.”