Since grassland conservation crops are normally bulky fibrous feeds and often limit the appetite and nutrient intake of dairy cows, a feeding trial was made in which a basal ration of hay and grass silage was compared with similar rations containing roots. Three rations were compared in a 12-week winter feeding trial using twelve Ayrshire cows. Ration A consisted of 8 lb of hay and 65 lb of grass silage daily, whilst rations B and C contained 30 and 60 lb of fodder-beet, respectively, in addition. With all three rations concentrates were given at 3£ lb per 10 lb of milk. The total weights of dry matter consumed per day were 29-1, 32-5 and 35-4 lb, respectively, for rations A, B and C and were significantly different. For every 1 lb of additional fodder-beet dry matter eaten the decline in the amount of basal feeds consumed was 0-45 lb. The largest effect was on the silage which fell from 10-8 lb of silage dry matter per day for ration A to 8-8 lb for ration B and 6-8 lb for ration C.The weight of starch equivalent (S.E.) given per day increased significantly from 18-1 lb for treatment A to 22-2 lb for treatment C, whilst at the same time the total weight of crude fibre and lignin eaten decreased significantly in the rations containing fodder-beet.The mean daily milk yields for rations A, B and C were 37-4, 39-2 and 38-5 lb, respectively, with a response of 0-9 lb milk per 1 lb of extra S.E. given between rations A and B but no further response between rations B and C. The fat percentages of the milk were not significantly different for the three rations whereas the solidsnot-fat (S.N.F.) varied significantly from 8-58 % for ration A to 8-77 % for ration Ca response of 005 % S.N.F. for each additional 1 lb of S.E. The change in the S.N.F. was mainly in the protein fraction of the milk. The cows were significantly heavier when on ration C than when on ration A.The effect of feeding roots on the appetite of the cow and on the resulting milk quality, and the problems of growing roots on intensively managed grassland farms are briefly discussed.

In a preliminary study of the use of liquid manure as a fertilizer for grassland in the summer, Castle & Drysdale (1962) obtained important increases in yield, an increase in the clover content of the sward and a reduction in the number of dicotyledonous weeds. In another experiment (Drysdale, 1964) liquid manure applied in February resulted, in July, in twice the content of clover that was obtained from a corresponding application of nitrogen and potash fertilizers. There have been a few reports in the literature of an increase in clover where liquid manure was used (Hendrick, 1915;Gisiger, 1950), but in general experiments have shown a depression of clover (Dusserre, 1933;Wheeler, 1958;Voisin, 1960) particularly with undiluted urine.The experiment reported here was designed to investigate in detail the effect of liquid manure on the yield of herbage and on the content of clover in the sward, and also the interaction between liquid manure and nitrogen, phosphate and potash fertilizers.EXPERIMENTAL,The trial was sited on a free-draining light to medium loam soil adjacent to the site of earlier experiments which showed a marked response to fertilizers containing nitrogen and potassium, but a negligible response to phosphorus. A sample of soil taken in January 1961 had the following analysis: pH 5-91, available P 2 O 6 6 mg./lOO g. and available K 2 O 20 mg./lOO g.A mixture of 20 lb. perennial rye-grass (S 24) and 3 lb. white clover (S 100)/acre was sown in May 1960 and produced an even sward with a good but not excessive development of clover. TreatmentsThe treatments applied were as shown at foot of next column.The fertilizer nitrogen was applied as 'NitroChalk' (21 % N), the phosphate as superphosphate (20-5 % P 2 O 6 ) and the potash as muriate of potash (60%K 2 O).The applications of liquid manure and fertilizers 22 were made in five equal dressings, the first in April and then after each of five cuts except the last. At each application the liquid manure treatments were applied first and were followed by the dry fertilizers.The liquid manure consisted of cow urine diluted with about three times its weight of water and was collected and stored during the winter. The mean contents of nitrogen in 1961, 1962 and 1963 were 0-32, 0-25 and 0-20% N and the corresponding values for potassium were 0-53, 0-42 and 0-37 % K; phosphorus was less than 0-01 % P. The weight of liquid manure to be applied was calculated to supply the correct weight of nitrogen. This entailed the application of potassium contained in the liquid manure and since it was not feasible to have liquid manure of constant potassium content there were small variations in the amounts of potassium put on at each application. The total weights of liquid manure and the nitrogen and potassium supplied per year in the liquid manure are shown in Table 1. Design and methodsSince this experiment was planned to investigate the interaction between liquid manure and Liquid manure LMO

SummaryTo investigate the effect of replacing part of the concentrates by roots, a 16-week winter-feeding experiment was made using twelve Ayrshire cows. All the cows received 8 lb of hay per day and enough grass silage for a measurable residue to be left at each feed. Two rations were supplemented with 45 lb of fodder-beet per day but the other two contained no roots. At each level of root feeding, concentrates were fed at either 3·50 or 1·75 lb per 10 lb of milk.All the fodder-beet was eaten (8·4 lb dry matter) and, as this caused a reduction in the intake of silage dry matter of only 3·4 lb per day, there was a net increase in drymatter intake. The level of concentrate feeding had little effect on the intake of the other feeds. Rations which included roots contained significantly less crude fibre than rations without roots.The mean daily milk yields for the treatments with the low and high concentrate levels were 29·5 and 33·9 lb, respectively, without roots and 31·8 and 35·8 lb with roots. The fat percentages of the milk were similar on all four treatments whereas the solids-not-fat (S.N.F.) increased significantly from 8·42% on the treatment without roots and low concentrates to 8·64% on the treatment with roots and high concentrates. The response per 1 lb of extra S.E. was 1·0 lb milk and 0·02% S.N.F. between the low and high concentrate treatments and 0·7 lb milk and 0·05% S.N.F. between the two root treatments. The analysis of milk from individual quarters of all the cows during each period showed the continuous presence of some subclinical mastitis. It was estimated that this lowered the general level of S.N.F. percentage by 0·2% but did not bias the results from any one feeding treatment. For milk from healthy quarters only, the response to 1 lb extra S.E. from concentrates was 0·03% S.N.F. and from beet it was 0·08% S.N.F.

SummaryTwo experiments are described in which spring-calved Ayrshire cows were fed supplementary food when grazing good, leafy pasture.In the first experiment 6 lb of a mixture of three parts bruised oats and one part flaked maize was fed daily to three groups of five cows. One group received the supplement from 1 July until 30 October, and the other two groups from 1 August and 1 September respectively. A control group received no supplement.In no month was there any statistical difference in daily milk yield between supplemented and unsupplemented groups of cows. The group fed from 1 July gave the highest total milk yield in the period June to October, but with a return of only 1 gal of milk from 34 lb of meal.The length of the lactation was not significantly affected by the treatment.In the second experiment, three groups of four cows on a 9-week change-over trial (4 May-5 July) grazed herbage containing an average of only 17·6% dry matter and 3·8% crude fibre. On the three treatments the cows ate pasture only, pasture plus 1·6 lb hay/day and pasture plus 5·7 lb of meal/day. The meal consisted of four parts by weight of undecorticated cotton cake, four of bruised oats and three of locust beans.Milk yield was significantly increased from 41·8 lb on the all-grass ration to 43·2 lb/day on the meal treatment but the hay did not affect milk yield.The fat content of the milk was significantly increased from 3·77 to 3·91% on the hay treatment, whereas the solids-not-fat content of the milk was not significantly affected by any of the treatments.At the present-day prices of the feeds and with cows on good leafy pasture it was clearly uneconomic to feed the meal supplements.

The effect of stocking rate and of feeding a supplement of barley on milk yield and quality was studied in an experiment with 18 spring‐calved Ayrshire cows grazing from early May until early September in 1964 and 1965. Three treatments were compared: (A) grazing at a normal stocking rate with no supplements fed (the control); (B) grazing at a high stocking rate with no supplements fed; (C) grazing at a high stocking rate, as on treatment B, with a supplement of 8 Ib rolled barley per cow daily. On treatment A, 0.92 ac/cow was used for grazing, plus some conservation, and on treatments B and C, 0.70 and 0.58 ac in 1964 and 1965, respectively. The average daily milk yields were 35.4, 32.9 and 37.0 Ib (16.1, 14.9 and 16.8 kg), respectively, on treatments A, B and C in 1964, and 39.1, 32.3 and 38.8 Ib (17.8, 14.7 and 17.6 kg) in 1965. Milk production/ac was 24 and 32% higher on treatment B than on treatment A in 1964 and 1965, respectively. The response to the barley feeding on treatment C was equivalent to an extra 1 gallon milk from 20 Ib barley in 1964 and from 12 Ib barley in 1965 (10 litres of milk from 20 and 12 kg barley). The total‐solids content of the milk from the three treatments was not significantly different. It is concluded that, at the present price of barley and the price received for milk, an increase in stocking rate, with a consequent increase in the milk yield per acre, was more profitable than feeding barley.