20 BULLETIN &45, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANIMALS. 



Table 1. — Animals from the general herd used both as experiments and controls. 





Date of birth. 



Breed. 



Date of calving. 



Days dry. 



Milk yield.* 



Fat yield.! 



1 







Con- 



Phos- 



After 



After 



After 



After 



"o 







After control 

 feeding. 



After phos- 

 phate feeding. 



trol 

 nod. 



phate 



con- 

 trol 

 feed- 



phos- 

 phate 

 feed- 



con- 

 trol 

 feed- 



phos- 

 phate 

 feed- 



fc 















ing. 



ing. 



ing. 



ing. 













Days. 



Days. 



Lbs. 



Lbs. 



Lbs. 



Lbs. 



17 



1909. 



Grade Jersey.. 



Dec. 11,1918 



Mar. 29,1920 



122 



122 



847 



858 



33.9 



33.5 



49 



Oct. 22,1914 



Grade Guern- 



Dec. 25,1918 



Jan. 14,1920 



71 



36 



831 



953 



40.7 



43.8 



50 



Oct. 25,1914 



Grade Holstein 



June 3, 1920 



Dec. 20,1918 



73 



98 



995 



972 



38.8 



38.9 



54 



Jan. 22,1915 



Grade Guern- 

 sey. 



May 14,1917 



June 2, 1919 



First 

 calf. 



61 



669 



1,027 



24.1 



34.9 



63 



Oct. 17,1915 



GradeHolstein 



Feb. 1, 1918 



Apr. 25,1919 



..do.. 



103 



422 



1,018 



15.5 



34.1 



71 



July 15,1916 



Grade Guern- 



Dec. 11,1918 



Mar. 1, 1920 



..do.. 



60 



632 



1,121 



29.1 



49.3 



81 



Feb. 19,1917 



...!?So 



Apr. 24,1919 



Apr. 6, 1920 



..do.. 



44 



685 



936 



26.0 



42.1 



1 The figures given in these columns represent the number of pounds of milk and fat given from the 

 tenth to the fortieth day after calving, except in the case of cow 54. In this case it was necessary to take 

 the figures for the yields from the eighteenth to the forty-eighth day after calving, as the daily milk records 

 from the tenth to the seventeenth day in 1917 had been lost. 



The following comments are made on the animals in Table 1 : 



Cow 17. — This animal gave very little more milk after the phos- 

 phate feeding than after the control feeding. She had a long dry 

 period in both cases. It seems likely that the long dry period enabled 

 her to restore any insufficiency of bone material which may have ex- 

 isted at the beginning of the experiment. She had a uterine infection 

 after the experimental feeding, which may have reduced her milk 

 somewhat in the experimental period. 



Cow J^9. — This animal aborted during the period of phosphate 

 feeding 39 days before term. The abortion greatly shortened her 

 dry period on the phosphate feeding and prevented her receiving the 

 more liberal grain ration which she had eaten for 23 days before 

 calving during the control period. In the general herd, abortions 5 

 weeks or more before term have decreased the first two months' milk 

 yield from 30 to 50 per cent. We have no way of accounting for the 

 increased milk which was given in this case after the abortion, except 

 as the result of the phosphate feeding. 



Cow 50. — This animal was fed a much more liberal grain ration 

 than the others in both the control and experimental periods. She 

 " leaked " milk from her udder to a considerable extent through the 

 experimental period, and she had a uterine infection after calving 

 in the control period, which may have somewhat reduced her milk 

 yield. She gave a little more milk in the control period than in the 

 experimental period. The numerous disturbing circumstances make 

 it difficult to interpret the results, but they seem to us to indicate 

 that often the addition of phosphate will have little effect when the 

 basal grain ration is as high as 5 pounds daily. 



