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The Mineral Requirements of Dairy Cows¹

Present Status of the Question

Dairy Division, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.

ABSTRACT

The discussion in this paper will be confined to the two elements, calcium and phosphorus. There is little reason to think that deficiencies of any other mineral elements play a very large or general practical rôle under ordinary conditions, except, perhaps, in the case of iodine. There is much evidence in existence which shows that in certain regions goiter develops in human beings as well as in farm animals as the result of an iodine deficiency in the food. But the discussion of this question is outside the scope of the present paper.

The subject of calcium and phosphorus deficiencies may be outlined under three questions.

I. Do deficiencies of calcium and phosphorus in the rations of dairy cows play an important practical part under present conditions of feeding?

II. Under what circumstances do such deficiencies occur?

III. How are they to be corrected?

I

The work of Forbes has probably done more to call attention to the possibility that dairy cows may often suffer from calcium and phosphorus deficiencies than that of any other recent investigator.

¹ Paper read before the Production Section of the American Dairy Science Association, October 10, 1922, St. Paul, Minnesota.