84 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



nish lime, but practically no phosphorus. 



If plenty of alfalfa, clover, soybean or other legume 

 hay is fed, then there may possibly be no advantage in add- 

 ing a calcium-rich mineral supplement to the ration. How- 

 ever, even with legume hay available for winter feeding, it 

 can do no harm and may do considerable good to add one 

 of these lime carriers to the ration. 



Feed Calcium Supplements on Pasture. 



Fresh, green crops contain an especially large amount 

 of the vitamine needed to enable animals to assimilate cal- 

 cium. Therefore, the best way of replenishing the calcium 

 in the cow's body, which may have been seriously depleted 

 by high milk production during the winter feeding period, 

 is to feed a calcium supplement when she is on pasture. 

 Therefore, it is especially important to mix one of the cal- 

 cium-rich supplements with the concentrate mixture fed to 

 cows on pasture. It is probably best to use more of the 

 calcium-supplement than for winter feeding. As much as 

 8 to 10 pounds of one of the calcium-supplements may be 

 mixed with each 100 pounds of concentrate mixture. If 

 this mixture should not be very palatable to the cows, the 

 allowance of the mineral supplement may be reduced 

 siomewhat. 



When the cows are not fed any concentrates during a 

 part of the pasture season, the calcium-supplement may be 

 mixed with salt and the cows allowed free access to it. A 

 mixture of % salt by weight and % limestone, wood ashes, 

 marl, steamed bone meal, or ground rock phosphate may be 

 used for this purpose. In recent experiments at the Wis- 

 consin Experiment Station as much as % pound to 1 pound 

 to steamed bone meal per head daily has been fed to dairy 

 cows under pasture conditions with good results. 



What About Commercial Mineral Mixtures? 



It is entirely unnecessary to buy expensive commercial 

 mineral mixtures. Just as good results can be secured by 

 following the simple recommendations on these pages. 



