70 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



nutrients and the removal of waste from the body. As already shown, 

 water is also an agent in regulating the body temperature, both thru 

 the vapor given off by the lungs and the evaporation of sweat from the 

 surface of the body. If water is withheld from an animal for some time, 

 the processes of mastication, digestion, absorption, and assimilation are 

 hindered; the intestines are not properly flushed, and waste matter 

 remains too long therein ; the blood thickens ; and the body temperature 

 is increased. Thru these complications death may result. Animals 

 partially deprived of water for a long period lose their appetite for 

 solid food, and vomiting and diarrhea may occur, the latter also often 

 taking place when water is again supplied. 



Scientists agree that farm animals should have all the water they will 

 drink at regular intervals, for they do not take it in excess unless they 

 are forced to live on watery foods or are given salt irregularly. The 

 water for stock must be fresh and pure to avoid disease. All water 

 that is drunk must be raised to the temperature of the body, thus 

 consuming heat. Warming cold water taken into the body does not 

 necessarily mean that more food nutrients must be burned, for as has 

 been pointed out previously (90), animals produce a large amount of 

 heat in the work of digesting food and converting the digested matter 

 into body products or work. Due to this, many animals have an excess 

 of body heat. Comfortably housed and well-fed steers and dairy cattle 

 may produce more heat thru this means than is needed to warm 

 their bodies, and the excess may go to warm the water they drink, so 

 that no food is directly burned for that purpose. However, when 

 animals are watered but once a day, they then drink a large amount. 

 In winter if the water is cold this makes a sudden demand for a large 

 amount of heat, which may exceed the amount of excess heat being 

 produced in the body. Food must then be burned simply to warm the 

 water, even tho thereafter an excess of heat may be produced in the 

 body. For this reason, feed may be saved by watering animals fre- 

 quently which are unduly exposed to cold and those fed scanty rations, 

 or else by warming the water. During severe winter weather cows 

 producing a heavy yield of milk need more water than they are apt 

 to drink if it is supplied too cold. Especially for such animals, a 

 system of automatic drinking buckets installed in the stable, is ad- 

 vantageous. 



Under normal conditions animals consume a fairly uniform quantity 

 of water for each pound of dry matter eaten. Possibly due to their 

 laxative nature, feeds rich in crude protein bran, linseed meal, peas, 

 etc. cause a greater demand for water than starchy feeds. Kellner 17 * 

 found that for each 100 Ibs. of water in the water drunk and in the food, 

 the ox voided 46.3 Ibs. in the feces, 29.2 in the urine, and 24.5 in the 

 breath and perspiration. Water is an important regulator of the tem- 

 perature of the animal body. A large amount of heat is absorbed in 



"aLandw. Vers. Stat., 53, 1900, p. 404. 



