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Antirachitic Activity of Some Dehydrated Alfalfa Hays and the Effect of Adding Limestone to the Grain Ration on the Development of Rickets in Calves

Bureau of Dairy Industry, Agricultural Research Administration, U. S. D. A.

ABSTRACT

There has been a large increase in the production and feeding of alfalfa and grasses cured with little or no exposure to the vitamin D-activating rays of the sun, and various commercially dehydrated alfalfa products also are now being sold widely for animal feeds. Some of these crops, especially the dehydrated alfalfa products, are cut at a very immature stage.

It seems desirable, therefore, to know the antirachitic properties of such feeds when they are used as the only source of vitamin D for young calves.

Studies already have been reported by the Bureau of Dairy Industry which showed that alfalfa, which was barn-dried immediately after cutting, and alfalfa silage protected calves against the development of rickets (16) and that barn-dried alfalfa hay and wilted alfalfa Silage cured rickets in calves (12). Other investigators have shown that corn silage cured rickets in calves (5). The vitamin D activity, or antirachitic activity, of an alfalfa crop as it stands in the field was shown to vary with the stage of maturity (16).