Show DA COWS NEED FREE ACCESS TO WATER should at all times have all they will drink prepared by the united states department ot of agriculture service dairymen who want the most mosi milk arid and butterfat from their cows should arrange to let ther i drink as much water as they want when they want it says T E H woodward of the united states department of agriculture mr woodward who Is senior dairy husbandman in the bureau of dairy industry has completed experiments to determine the relation of methods of watering dairy cows to their water consumption and production the tests were run both in warm and cold weather and included both high pro and low producing cows the results of watering twice a day and once a day were compared with results obtained when the cows had free access to water in these tests according to mr woodward the cows drank more water when watered only twice a day than when they had water at will or when watered only once a day but their production was highest when they had water at will the prodoc tion of the cows in this experiment averaged 28 per cent more milk and 21 per cent more butterfat when given free access to water than when watered only twice a day and when watered twice a day they produced I 1 per cent more milk and 14 per cent more butterfat than when watered only once a day mr woodward also reports that the increase in milk production as a result of more frequent watering was more marked in the case of the good producers than in the case of the low producers |