Sodium requirement of milking cows: balance trials with cows on rations of freshly mown herbage and on winter rations.

Abstract

Dairy cows were fed freshly mown herbage or winter rations which together with the drinking water gave Na intakes of betwen 5.8 and 91.0 g./day. The availability of the Na varied from 77 to 95% averaging 85.5%. The Na secretion in the milk averaged 0.38 g./l. varying from 0.31 to 0.49 g./l. The Na requirement for dairy cows with milk yields of 10-30 kg, /day when the Na was 75-95% available ranged from 10.0 to 23.3 g./day. D.E.C. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)