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Show I DAIRY l , FACTS I FEED KEEPS UP MILK YIELD Ordinary Rations Are Likely to Be Deficient in Principal Bone-Building Elements. (Prepared by the United States Department Depart-ment of Agriculture.) Feeding cows for several years, according ac-cording to the commonly accepted standard with little or no additional pasture, reduced the milk yield much below the optimum, it was found by experiments at the government farm at BeltsvllJe, Md. This condition may be corrected by giving the animal a dry period of two months, and feeding during that period a ration containing legume hay and grain with a high phosphorus content, with three or four times the h mount of protein re- V -V" Cows Thrive on Rich Paslufes. quired for maintenance, and iwo or three times the total nutriments The milk yield in the subsequent lactation period may sometimes be doubled by this treatment. The results of the ex-r perlments are given In Bulletin 945, "The Influence of Calcium aud Phosphorus Phos-phorus in the Pood on the Milk Yield of Dairy Cows." In the case of cows of which the milk yield has been reduced by several sev-eral years' standard feeding, as followed fol-lowed at Beltsville, a greatly Increased yield can be brought about by feeding "alternated rations with phosphate" during the dry period. This is taken to mean that the ordinary rations are more likely to be deficient in one or both of the principal bone-building elements than in any other constituent. constitu-ent. Bulletin 945, "The Influence of Calcium Cal-cium and Phosphorus in the Food on the Milk Yield of Dairy Cows," may be had upon application to the Division Divi-sion of Publications. United States Department De-partment of Agriculture. |