Feeding Dairy Cattle

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19626, 21 October 1933, Page 15

Feeding Dairy Cattle

A thorough study has been made of the figures representing the detailed analyses of more than 1000 samples of ; milk obtained over of several years from cows fed widely different amounts of protein, the rations ranging from 1:2 to 1:13 in nutritive ratio according to the 51st annual report of the Ohio Experimental Station. None of the major constituents of the milk (fat, lactose, ash and protein), as ordinarily determined, were perceptibly increased or decreased by even the most radical change in the protein content of the ration. The properties of the milk fat and the character of the milk protein were also unaffected by these changes. One minojr group of constituents of the milk, often referred to collectively as non-protein nitrogen is the only protein which appears to be regularly affected by the level of protein feeding. This non-protein nitrogen ordinarily comprises about 5 per cent, of the total nitrogen of the milk. There was nearly twice as much non-protein nitrogen in the milk of the cows receiving the 1:2 ration as in the milk from those receiving the 1:13 ration. Of the several materials in this group, some of them unknown, urea was the one most affected by the level of protein feeding, the amount being eight times as much in the milk from the 1:2 as In that from the 1:13 ration. Tests With Calves. i Six Friesian male calves were used I in an experiment to determine the ef- | feet of a whole milk diet, upon the I number of red blood corpuscles and | the hemoglobin content of the blood, | and to determine the value of copper j and iron supplements. Three of the j calves, acting as a cheek group, lot 1 received as their ration whole milk | alone; the other calves, lot 2, received

RATIONS AND MILK

whole milk with copper and iron supplements. The experiment lasted approximately eight and a half months. Red blood cell counts and hemoglobin determinations were made at two-week intervals. Nutritional anemia was produced in those calves receiving whole milk exclusively. The addition of copper and iron supplements maintained the hemoglobin and erythrocytes at a high level. Some of the calves in both groups exhibited external symptoms of rickets. These observations were confirmed by blood studies, and after slaughtering, by bone ash determinations and breaking strengths of the cannon bones. Feed Value of Wheat. Experiments have been conducted to determine the feeding value of wheat for dairy cows. Two grain mixtures were compared. One contained approximately one-half wheat with maize and oats making up the remaining half. The check ration contained only wheat, bran and linseed oil meal in addition to maize and oats. The results of these two mixtures were about on a par when fed with lucerne hay. A third group of cows, fed with this wheat mixture continuously during the winter period, produced normally and to all appearances suffered no ill effects from such heavy feeding of wheat. In order to give wheat feeding an even more drastic trial, two cows were placed on a ration composed of ground wheat containing 2 per cent, steamed bonemeal with lucerne hay as the solo roughage. After four months of this feeding these cows are doing nicely. Therefore it appers that libera] amounts of wheat may be safely included in dairy rations when prices warrant.