Experiments on the use of home grown foods for milk production: II. The effect of feeding concentrated and bulky foods prior to calving on subsequent milk production

Extract

1. A field experiment in which six farms cooperated, supplying fifty-one experimental cows and heifers, has been conducted. The object was to find whether feeding before calving 156 lb. of concentrates or its equivalent in feeding value as bulky food increased milk production.

2. The results showed that animals fed concentrates gained more weight before calving, were in better condition at calving, and produced a maximum of 7 lb. more milk per cow per day than the controls. Although those fed bulky food increased in live weight more than the controls, they did not calve in such good condition and produced only 3 lb. of milk per cow per day more than the controls.

3. Nearly half the animals fed bulky food refused appreciable amounts of this supplement, and it is probable that this refusal of food is one of the factors responsible for the differences in milk production between the two groups receiving additional food.

4. The correlation (r) between the weight of the cow and the weight of the calf was +0·507, and there was no statistically significant difference between the weight of the calves produced by cows receiving different treatments.

5. Although the fat percentage of the milk of the cows receiving supplementary food was higher than that of the cows receiving no supplement, the difference was not statistically significant.

6. Correlation analysis showed that the farmers' judgement of the condition of their cows at calving time was very closely related to the cows' subsequent performance.