8
—Lancaster Farmim
Animat Rose
Unknown Gro
A lot of farmers have been
making it easy for their cows to
digest their feed in recent years,
and as a result, a lot of good, high
producing dairy cows are dying
prematurely at considerable loss
to their owners That’s the gist of
recent articles in a variety of
farm publications by some top
notch veterinarians from around
the country
The desire to mechanize
feeding operations has seen
many farmers cutting back on
the amount of hay they’ve been
feeding dairy animals. Silage has
become an important part of
dairy animals’ feeding programs
because it can be fed
mechanically, and a lack of labor
has forced more and more
automation on farmers.
The problem, according to the
many vets, is that the expanded
use of silage feeds has lessened
the work a cow must put into
digesting her food, and less
stimulation for her digestive
system which is an important
part of her milk production
mechanism
As a result, the internal
makeup of many cows is being
altered, causing shrinking of the
rumen and enlargement and
twisting of the abomasum,
leading to a variety of disorders,
some of which prove fatal a short
time after symptoms appear
Dr Samuel Guss, Penn. State
veterinarian, noted recently that
lack of good hay in the period
before calving can mean a cow is
headed for trouble Dr. Guss
points out that the dairy cow’s
rumen is a large “mixing vat”
where food is digested and turned
into meat and milk.
Powerful bands of muscles
around the rumen provide the
churning action and move
digested feed through the
digestive tract where the
nutrients are removed. A normal
1,200 pound cow has a rumen
capable of holding 180 to 200
pounds of feed and wafer, ac-
Saturday. Jum
archers Look for
wth Factor in Hay
cording to Dr. Guss.
When a cow fails to get the
coarse, hard, stemmy fibers
associated with hay during the
late lactation and dry period, the
muscles work less and as a result
the rumen shrinks allowing other
organs to shift. After a cow has
her calf, Dr Guss says, there’s a
good chance she’ll suffer from
“twisted stomach,” a condition
veterinarians have been seeing
more of in recent years
A three year study of high
silage and grain feeding prac
tices made at Cornell University
has turned up some startling
evidence that a no-hay diet not
only leads to pesky problems and
loss of milk production, it can
also mean abnormally high
mortality in dairy herds.
A Cornell report issued last
year showed that nine out of ten
cows fed only liberal amounts of
grain and silage either died or
had to be slaughtered before their
third lactation However, nine out
of ten cows which had all the hay
they wanted, along with rations
of grain and silage, made it
throught the third lactation.
The Cornell research team fed
other groups of cows varying
amounts of grain, hay and silage
with results that ranged between
the two extremes mentioned.
Death losses weren’t high for any
cow groups which got at least
eight pounds of hay per day.
Cows which were on the all
silage and grain diets with no hay
seemed to lack resistance to
disease and reproductive
disorders. The Cornell tests are
still being studied.
In Michigan, dairy scientists
are calling similar problems the
“Fat Cow Syndrome’’ and are
conducting similar research
projects in the area of dairy cow
feeding Dairy specialist Don
Hillman says the barn boss at
Michigan State University has
reported long hay is a sure cure
for off-feed cows on high grain
and high corn silage rations.
Veterinarian L C. Allenstein
has reported several recent cases
he and his partner treated in
which cows had suffered from
abomasa! ulcers. He, too, laid
part of the blame for these and
some other cow disorders to
“increased grain feeding, lack of
long stemmed hay, increased
silage and haylage feeding and
increased chopped feeds ”
All sorts of substitutes for hay
have been tried in recent years,
ranging from plastic pellets to old
newspapers and sawdust. Some
of these show promise, but none
of the substitutes seem able to do
the job that hay does in keeping a
cow healthy.
One of the reasons for this,
according to James Stere, a
researcher and well-known
authority for Sperry Rand’s New
Holland farm equipment
division, is that hay contains an
“unknown growth factor,” or
UGF as animal researchers have
come to call it.
In a discussion at the National
Hay Association convention in
North Carolina recently, Stere
said there is no substitute known
for UGF,
“There is a great deal of
research, money and talent being
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“Unknown Growth Factor", or UGF as animal researchers
have come to call it, is contained in hay. Laboratory
technicians are attempting to isolate and identify that factor
which accounts for good growth in cows. Cornell University
researchers report that 90 per cent of a dairy cow sample
under study, which were fed rations of only grain and silage
with no hay, either died or had to be slaughtered before their
third lactation.
directed to the study of these
factors in an effort to isolate and
identify the ingredients that
account for good growth in
cows,” Stere said.
He added that the nutritive and
physical value found in good
quality hay have not been
equaled by any of the substitutes
□
which include corn cobs, oyster
shells, straw, sugar cane and
cotton burrs in addition to the
newspaper and sawdust ex
periments.
It seems that a cow just has to
have good quality hay in her diet
if she’s going to remain healthy
and productive, Stere said.
'
* \