Feeding Dairy Cattle 



bone would need to be used for these animals, unless it wa^ 

 found in any gi\en herd that the ordinary packers' steamed 

 bone was not palatal>le to the animals. 



if the cattle would not eat enough of this mixture of 

 steamed hone and salt to insure the consumption of an 

 ounce I if salt per day, then salt should be given to them in 

 addition, unmixed. 



FEEDING PHOSPHORUS 



The experimental evidence on the necessity of the feed- 

 ing of additional phosphorus to milk producing animals is 

 not quite so definite or clear. Dr. Forbes' summary of the 

 necessities for minerals by dairy cattle seems to indicate that 

 sufificient phosphorus will be supplied in the ration if cattle 

 have access at all times to this four to one mixture of steamed 

 bone and salt. He makes the following statement: 



"With some waste of phosphorus the whole supplemen- 

 tar\- mineral requirements may be served by calcium 

 phosphate." 



Calcium phosphate is provided by the steam bone men- 

 tioned above. 



Dr. Meigs' work, as reported in bulletin No. 945 of the 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, shows that the feeding of 

 additional phosphorus to cows during the dry period seems 

 to have a beneficial effect upon their production in the suc- 

 ceeding lactation. Dr. Meigs recommends the feeding of 

 phosphorus in the form of di-sodium phosphate fNa2 

 HPO4). He recommends feeding this as 10 per cent, by 

 weight of the grain mixture. Dr. Meigs' method of feeding 

 phosphorus is to feed hay one day during the dry period and 

 grain containing the sodium phosphate the next day. He 

 calls this "alternate feeding with phosphorus." The reason 

 for alternating the hay and grain is this. The calcium 

 i^ contained to the largest extent in the roughage and the 

 phosphorus is contained largely in the grain. According 

 to Dr. Meigs, high calcium retention may be interfered with 

 by a large amount of phosphorus in the ration, therefore, 

 it seems to be better to feed the hay one day and grain the 

 next \\ ith silage every day. 



To my mind, the question is as yet somewhat unsettled 

 as to the necessity of this additional phosphorus feeding if 

 the steamed bone is fed regularly to the animals both during 

 the lactation period and during the dry period. However 

 sodium phosphate is not harmful to animals, neither is an 

 excess of steamed bone harmful to them in any way. Con- 

 sequently, I see no reason why the feeding of both the 



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