ALBERT

Description: 1. An individual feeding experiment using forty-eight pigs and a group feeding experiment using twenty-nine pigs have been carried out with the object of testing the so-called Lehmann system of pig feeding, where the amount of meal allowed for the fattening pig is restricted to a basal ration of 2½ lb. each and farm bulky foods or food wastes fed ad lib. used as supplementary foods.2. Using a mixture of 6 parts mangold and 1 part biscuit waste as a supplementary food, live-weight gains only slightly less than with all-meal feeding have been obtained and a great saving in meal consumption effected. Under more favourable conditions as much as 1¾ lb. of meal has been saved for each 1 lb. live-weight gain.

Description: For three consecutive years American hybrid maize was grown, under replicated experimental conditions, in the south of England. Each season, the influence of the spacing of the plants and the use of nitrogenous fertilizer on the yield and composition of the crop and of its separate portions of leaf, stem and cob was investigated.The growth of the maize, and especially its yield of dry matter, were influenced by the weather conditions during the season. The weight of fresh crop varied, with season and treatment, from 126 to 278 (averaging 209), and of dry matter from 20 to 70 (averaging 50) cwt./acre.Thinning below the established plant populations of up to 30,000 plants per acre regularly reduced these yields. Top-dressing with sulphate of ammonia increased them in 1947 and 1949, but decreased them in 1948.The yield of crude protein varied from 2.2 to 5.0, and of soluble carbohydrates from 12 to 46 cwt./acre. The top-dressing increased the protein content of all portions of the plant.The cob contributed, on a weight basis, 46% of the fresh crop, 49% of its dry matter, 54% of its crude protein and 54% of its soluble carbohydrates. Details are given of the chemical composition of the whole plant, and of its separate leaf, cob and stem, for each season and treatment.A later paper will deal with the making of silage from the maize crops and with the yield, composition and nutritive value of the silage.

Description: 1. In five experiments, groups of milking cows were changed abruptly from winter-stall feeding to graze a number of different swards, and changes in the concentration of blood-serum magnesium and of other blood constituents have been studied.2. Wide variations in the severity of hypomagnesaemia in individual cattle were found in all experimental groups, due possibly to such factors as individual variations in the intake of herbage, the requirement and body reserves of magnesium and the capacity to absorb magnesium from the gut.3. The degree of hypomagnesaemia observed was independent of the level of milk production, but was generally less severe in Friesian than in Shorthorn and Guernsey cattle. The onset of hypomagnesaemia was delayed for a few days in cattle with a high serum-magnesium concentration at the commencement of grazing.4. In two out of three experiments in which the effect of fertilizer treatment was studied, the incidence and severity of hypomagnesaemia was increased by the application to the sward of heavy dressings of nitrogenous fertilizer. In the third experiment, severe hypomagnesaemia occurred on a plot which had received no nitrogen fertilizer, due, it is thought, to a restricted intake of herbage magnesium, since the sward was extremely sparse. The feeding of supplements of flaked maize, crushed barley, crushed dredge corn, molassed sugar-beet pulp or a concentrate mixture balanced for milk production, to grazing cattle did not reduce the incidence of hypomagnesaemia.5. The cutting of grass and feeding it in the stall did not prevent the development of hypomagnesaemia.6. Blood pH and the concentrations of bloodserum calcium, sodium, potassium and blood glucose in cattle were unaffected by a change from winter feed to spring grazing, but a marked change in blood-serum non-protein and urea nitrogen and blood ammonia nitrogen, but not in any other nitrogenous constituents of the serum, was observed. The concentrations of serum non-protein and urea nitrogen and blood ammonia nitrogen were highest in groups of cattle grazing swards which had received a heavy dressing of nitrogen fertilizer and had a high nitrogen content.7. In the two experiments in which the severity of hypomagnesaemia was increased by the application of nitrogenous fertilizer, there was a close group association between high concentrations of blood serum non-protein and urea nitrogen and blood ammonia and low concentrations of blood-serum magnesium. High levels of serum urea and blood ammonia during grazing are thought to reflect a high ammonia production in the gut, which may be responsible for the disturbance in magnesium metabolism which produces hypomagnesaemia.

Description: Growth rates of Shorthorn and Friesian heifer calves from 0 to 6 months of age were studied from live-weight data collected over a 10-year period.Friesian calves were heavier than Shorthorn. Male calves were heavier than female. Calves born to the first pregnancy were smaller than those born to later ones. Gestation length was 5 days shorter for Friesian than for Shorthorn cows. It tended to be slightly shorter for female than for male calves. Non-foetal loss of weight at calving was greater with male than with female calves.High-level feeding before calving was associated with heavier calves but the effect was not statistically significant.Calf birth weight increased by 0·026 lb./lb. increase in post-calving live weight of the dam and by 0·564 lb./day extension of the gestation period.Growth rate accelerated from birth to 3–4 months of age and then declined slightly. Autumn-born calves grew faster in the first 90 days than springborn calves. Age of dam and level of feeding before calving had no effect on rate of growth of the calf.For both breeds there were significant negative correlations between birth weight and rate of gain in the first month after birth.

Description: In an experiment with twenty-four Large White pigs fattened from weaning to bacon weight on a diet containing either 5 or 9% of dried Clostridium residues the latter was found to be an efficient protein supplement.The authors wish to express their thanks to Dr S. J. Rowland who made all the chemical analyses involved, to the Directors of Commercial Solvents G.B., Ltd., who kindly supplied the product, and to Mr E. Gill, Works Manager of the above Company, for helpful collaboration.

Description: In 4 consecutive years, 1948 to 1952, combined varietal and manurial trials were carried out to obtain information on the yields of marrow-stem kale, thousand-head kale and cattle cabbage in the presence and absence of sulphate of ammonia applied as a top-dressing at the rate of 6 cwt./acre.Yield and composition of all crops were apparently affected by differences in weather conditions. In most years, and particularly for cabbage, the yield declined with successive harvests.Increased green crop, dry matter and crude protein yields resulted from the application of nitrogenous fertilizer in 3 years, but in the other year, a very dry season, the response to the top-dressing was negligible.Marrow-stem kale both with and without the additional fertilizer, yielded more, in terms of fresh crop, dry matter and crude protein, than thousandhead kale with the same manurial treatment. Cabbage yields often approached those of marrowstem kale at the first harvest, but were nearer to those of thousand-head by the last harvest of each year.

Description: 1. Three experiments are described on the feeding of supplements of calcined magnesite, linseed cake and vitamin D to dairy cows for the control of hypomagnesaemia and the prevention of hypomagnesaemic tetany on spring pastures.2. A daily supplement of 2 oz. calcined magnesite either contained in 2 lb. of dredge corn cubes or 4 lb. dredge corn mix, or as a drench, gave adequate protection against the development of hypomagnesaemia in the fifty-six cows to which it was given.3. The supplements of 3½–4 lb. linseed cake and 12,500 i.u. vitamin D gave only partial protection.4. The economics of providing dairy herds with magnesite during the early grazing period is discussed.

Description: Six litters of pigs farrowed, reared and fattened on a ration of barley meal, weatings, soya-bean meal, meat meal and minerals failed to thrive and in the later stages of fattening many of the pigs showed typical symptoms of vitamin A deficiency.Six comparable litters raised under similar conditions and on the same meal mixture with ° 1 or 2% of a commercial cod-liver oil of guaranteed purity and standardized vitamin content made good progress and nearly all the pigs weaned in these litters were fattened for pork or bacon.Estimations of liver reserves of vitamin A of the pigs receiving no cod-liver oil indicated that the liver store was exhausted soon after weaning. All pigs receiving cod-liver oil gradually increased their liver store of vitamin A. The stores rose approximately in proportion to the level fed and period of feeding. There was no evidence that the higher levels of cod-liver oil had any practical advantage over °%.The symptoms shown by the pigs receiving no cod-liver oil included loss of appetite, cessation of growth, impairment of vision in daylight, abnormal gait, convulsive fits and nervous collapse. Pneumonia and/or inflammation of the intestines was found in all of seven pigs that died during the fattening period.

Description: The results are given of an investigation of the successful production, and of the chemical composition and feeding value, of maize silage made from early maturing varieties of hybrid maize grown for three consecutive years in the south of England. The maize was ensiled at a stage when the cob contributed approximately 50% of the total crop and the dry-matter content of the crop varied from 16·3 to 27·2%. The mean crude protein content of the dry matter of the silage was 9·5% (range 7·9–11·2%). Average weight losses in the silo were fresh matter 25%, dry matter 30%, crude protein 25%, and soluble carbohydrates 40%.In three controlled feeding trials with cows and heifers in milk, maize silage was found to be equal in nutritive value to a ration of mangolds and oat and tare silage when fed on an equal dry-matter basis. The silage was very palatable and a daily ration of 50 lb. was consumed.It is concluded that although maize silage compares favourably with an average crop of cereal -legume silage in feeding value, its adoption on a wide scale cannot be recommended in view of the relatively low yield of dry matter per acre, the high costs of production and the appreciable silo