SALT FOR DAIRY COWS.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, 22 August 1923, Page 8

SALT FOR DAIRY COWS.

EFFECT ON MILK. (Continued.) Discussing the matter, with a fairly plain explanation already in mind, we learned that the cows were all driven out daily into a field through which ran a brook at which they were watered. The weather had been raw and rainy, and as the owner said, the cows would not drink much, generally. When the extra salt ration was being fed they “drank a lot more,” and had-stood around waiting to be allowed to get through. “I am mixing them good ration,” said the owner. “How about the salt?” we asked. “Oh, we give them a little now and then.” So we harked back and by comparing times and yields and rations found that the increased yields were coincident with the heavy salt allowance, which caused the cattle to consume a great dea’ more water every time they were allowed to get at it; and that when owing to the lack of a regular supply of even a small amount of salt, they refused to drink plenty of water the milk flow went back t@ its low level and stayed there. These cows evidently had not enough of either salt or water, and when an excess of the former made them take a greatly increased amount of the latter, the effect was immediately shown in the milk yield.

If salt is where the cattle can take it when inclined to, in the form of a salt brick, for “best results,” they will keep a good working supply of water or salt in their systems (always provided water, too, is before them), and show the benefit in the pail. Too little salt affects the appetite and general health adversely; too much purges, or leads to digestive disturbances. Keep a salt brick before her, and let the cow “salt her own.”

MILK COWS NEED MINERALS HN FEED. That milk cows need more minerals, particularly lime and phosphorus, than is commonly found in their feed, is the finding of recent feedingtests at the Ohio experiment station. The best feeds to supply these elements are clover hay, lucerne hay, and wheat bran. If plenty of one or more of these is not given in the daily feed, it will he wise to add about one pound of fine ground limestone and two pounds of specially prepared bone meal to each 100 pounds of grain mixture.

An increased flow of milk may not he noted at once, hut the good effects are in the prevention of future decrease in milk production. The minerals may make their best showingin the following year. The two elements most likely to he lacking are calcium, and bone meal carries both calcium and phosphorus. When these are combined in the feed while the cow is Ary, it is found that she will store enough to increase production still further during her next milking season.