Aug. i6, 1915 Prickly-Pears as a Feed for Dairy Cows 



429 



90 



70 



CO 

 K 



JO 







sudden changes of temperature. The effect of feeding the different 

 rations during severe weather will be readily noted in Table XVIII 

 and also graphically in figure i. It will be seen that the cows fed heavy 

 rations of prickly-pear 

 showed an average 

 decrease of 7.50 per 

 cent in their milk pro- 

 duction on the days of 

 the northers, the cows 

 fed medium rations a 

 decrease of 4.03 per 

 cent, while the milk 

 flow of cows that re- 

 ceived no prickly-pear 

 in their ration de- 

 creased but 1.92 per 

 cent. These data in- 

 dicate that the cows 

 feeding on prickly-pear 

 were more sensitive to 

 cold weather than 

 those receiving hay 

 and that the larger 

 quantity of the plant 

 caused the greater sen- 

 sitiveness. That the 

 greater decrease in 

 production of the 

 prickly-pear-fed cows 

 is due entirely to the 

 change in temperature 

 is more apparent when 



it is noted that all the cows returned to practically the same percentage 

 of their normal production on the second day following the northers. 



Table XVIII. — Effect of I J northers upon the milk yield of cows fed with prickly-pear 



and hay 



//>f K 6ffOUP 



M£0/UM j?/^r/o/v f>p/c/rL.y-P£Ai/? s/fouf>. 



^^SA^y fi>tT/0/V fi»/C*fL K-/>^>4/e G/fOC/f. 



Fig. I. — Effect of northersupon yield of milk by cows fed with different 

 rations. 



