Feeding Dairy Cattle 

 the milk so far as her body is able to do this. If she is unable 

 to as^iniilatu enough calcium from the ration from da\- to (la\- 

 to put the necessary amount of calcium into the milk, then 

 she must take it from her skeleton. This means that she 

 must then build hack into the skeleton, the necessar\' amount 

 of calcium during the period of the year when she is giving 

 little milk or during that period of the ^■ear when she is drx-. 

 Therefore, it seems doubly necessary to insure a plentiful 

 supply of calcium in the ration when she is dr^'. 



A large number of experiments have been made to studv 

 out the best way to supply this calcium. First and foremost 

 comes the amount of calcium supplied by legumes. .Mfalfa 

 and clover carry more calcium than any other forms of rough- 

 age. All good roughages carry consideraJ)le calciimi. 

 Therefore the first and primary consideration in a proper 

 ration for milk producing animals is a plentiful sujiply of 

 good legume roughage. 



In addition, the best way to supply this calcium seems 

 to be in the form of steamed bone. There is a product put 

 out by the United Chemical & Organic Products Company, 

 1 1 r ^^'est XA'ashington Street, Chicago, Illinois, called Si)ecial 

 Steamed Bone, which has been used with success b\- Dr. 

 Forbes. He has also uSed ordinary packers' steamed bone 

 to good success. 



To be very specific, it would seem to the writer that the 

 best \\ay to supply calcium in abundance to milch cows at all 

 periods of the year would be to keep constantly before the 

 co\\'s a mixture of four parts of special steamed bone and one 

 part of salt, or a mixture of four parts of ordinar\- packers' 

 steamed bone and one part of salt. Packers' steamed bone 

 can probably ])e secured from any one of the large packing 

 houses. 



MINERALS FOR CALVES 



\\'hile calves are receiving an abundance of milk with 

 roughage and grain there is probabh- no need for additional 

 calcium. After they have been weaned and are getting no 

 milk at all, it would be a good safety precaution to pr()\ide 

 them with access at all times to either one of the mixtures 

 recommended above. 



In the experiments at the Ohio Experiment Station, 

 reported in bulletin No. 347, both mature cows and calves 

 seemed to prefer the four to one mixture of packers' steamed 

 bone and salt to the four to one mixture of special steamed 

 bone and salt. The ordinary packers' steamed bone would 

 be cheaper and I can see no reason why the special steamed 

 Page Forty-nine 



