Bloat in Dairy Cattle

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Abstract
The danger from bloat has been an important deterrent in pasturing legumes, especially alfalfa, red clover, and sweet clover. These legumes have proven excellent for grazing, where they can be established without too great an initial cost. The carrying capacity, palatability and effect on the flavor of milk of legumes have been favorable to their use. However, the danger of losing animals from bloat has kept many farmers from pasturing legumes more generally than is practiced at present. Despite the fact that bloat, hoven or tympanitis has been recognized for a long time, very little experimental evidence is available as to the cause or of infallible preventive measures. A large number of preventive measures has been reported in the literature. These measures may prove successful in some communities under certain co~lditions, while not effective under similar conditions in other communities. Even on adjoining farms the same preventive measures may not be equally effective. Bloat may be prev- alent some years and show no evidence in others, for instance for sev- eral years no bloat was experienced with cows on experimental legume pastures at South Dakota State College. The cows were fed grain, and not allowed to go on the pastures when hungry. This practice proved effective as a preventive measure against bloat for several years but in later years the cows bloated on both alfalfa and sweet clover pastures although the management of the cows had not been changed. The same pasture plots were used and the cows were fed grain before turning on the pastures as in previous years.

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