Feeding Dairy Cattle 



XII. The Feeding of Lime and Phosphorus to Dairy Cows 



IXTl-'.RliS'J' changes in the different sides of the feeding 

 question. For many years the question of greatest 

 importance in the feeding of dairy cows has been the 

 amount of jjrotein. The whole question of the balanced 

 ration lay in the proper porportion of protein to the other 

 nutrients, and a ration was said to be balanced if it had the 

 liro]>er nutritive ratio. During the war, this question 

 changed s(jmewhat due to the fact that ihe cost of high pro- 

 tein feeds became much less than in any pre-war days, and the 

 question of getting enough protein into the ration was not 

 so much of an economic question as it had been before. 

 Farmers became accustomed to buying quite extensively of 

 high protein feeds and putting them into their rations. 

 Further, the teaching of agricultural colleges and experiment 

 stations, the large amount of publicity given in the dairy 

 ]5apers to the rations used by the best feeders, has caused 

 most farmers to use feed mixtures containing an abundance 

 of ])rotein. 



Just mtw the question of the proper balancing of a ration 

 is spreading out into a discussion of the necessity for vita- 

 mines and the necessity for mineral matter. The question 

 of ^•itamines. in the feeding of farm animals probabh' will 

 never be a very serious one, because of the fact that farm 

 animals get a large amount of roughage in their ration and 

 there seems to be; plenty of vitamines present in the rough- 

 ages and other feeds that are the normal ingredients in 

 rations. The question of the proper amount of mineral matter 

 in the ration is now receiving considerable attention. The 

 question of mineral matter with the proper feeding of s\\'ine 

 has ahva}'S been considered important, but the question of 

 the proper mineral matter in the rations for dairA- cows has 

 not received the attention it should, until \tr\ recentlv. 

 It is the purpose of this article to summarize the knowledge 

 ti]) to date and to state specifically how the mineral nutrition 

 of dair\- cattle may be accomplished in a practical way with 

 some assurance of good results. 



Dr. E. B. Forbes of the Ohio Experiment Station, AVoos- 

 ter, Ohio, has studied this question of the feeding of minerals 

 to dairy cattle more than any other one man. Dr. E. B. 

 ]\leigs of the Dairy Division of the U. S. Department of 

 ^\griculture has also given attention to this question. What- 

 ever is said in this article has been drawn mainly from these 

 t\\-o sources of information. . 

 Pii(ie Forty-seven 



