Blood Studies of Louisiana Dairy Cows. II. Calcium, Inorganic Phosphorus, Hemoglobin Value, Erythrocyte Count, Leucocyte Count and Differential Leucocyte Percentages

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Abstract
Variations in the blood picture of high-producing dairy animals in 2 separate herds which were fed and managed better than average are presented. The blood picture of low producing animals of an exptl. herd which were on a basal diet containing poor quality hay as the only source of roughage, supplemented with either Ca or P, or both Ca and P, or no minerals, is included. Analyses were made on pooled cit-rated blood drawn on 3 consecutive days from 38-46 animals every month or every 2 months over a period of approx. 2 yrs. The range of means and their standard errors for the herds were as follows: Ca: 10.89 [plus or minus] 0.67 to 11.36 [plus or minus] 0.15 mg. % plasma; P: 5.02 [plus or minus] 0.03 to 5.77 [plus or minus] 0.41 mg. % plasma; hemoglobin: 11.19 [plus or minus] 0.27 to 13.39 [plus or minus] 0.22 g. per 100 ml. blood; erythrocytes: 4.89 [plus or minus] .030 to 5.72 [plus or minus] 0.1 millions per cmm. blood; leucocytes: 8,411 [plus or minus] 31 to 10,268 [plus or minus] 45percmm. blood; lymphocytes 54.46 [plus or minus] 0.86 to 57.26 [plus or minus] 0.79%; neu-trophiles: 29.35 [plus or minus] 0.65 to 32.64 [plus or minus] 0.87%; eosinophiles 6.4 [plus or minus] 0.38 to 7.32 [plus or minus] 0.37%; monocytes: 5.49 [plus or minus] 0.06 to 6.38 [plus or minus] 0.04%; basophiles 0.37 [plus or minus] 0.09 to 0.58 [plus or minus] 0.08%. Poor quality hay in the ration of the exptl. herd did not seem to influence the blood Ca content or amounts of the various cellular constituents, but the P and hemoglobin values were significantly different from those of the other herds. A statistical study using analysis of variance of 753 detns. for Ca and P and 613 observations for each of the other constituents is included.