MILK YIELD.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7824, 17 June 1909, Page 1

MILK YIELD.

How much milk should ,a r cow, yield per annum, of overage ? (says an U.nglish dairying authority); ,;:..S?^m^F people keep milk records ™^',™& t$F know much more ab i out.,|he,jp!4»tOjfgN aiices of our animals than:we used;.^& do. The writer has kept a milk record for over twenty years, and thus has the written history of every animal he has owned within that time. ;In northern districts, and in cheesemakin«- districts where the cows only yield milk, about eight months from",spriijg to autumn, the number of gallons ppr head is rather limited, and Mr Rew, of the Board of Agriculture, has giv,en the average yield . of the : British] Islands at about 450 gallons per hpad per annum; On the other hand, theje are many, rnilk-sellihg dairies where the cows'are allowed tp-fun lii milk [as long as possible, and where;.the. allitijals been selected for 'milking, attd where the .average yield is. over 8001 gallons per head. ' Under' ordinary pircumstances, however, where cows tire in milk all the year found, and are forced a little with good, winter feeding, they should yield ■ 600 gallons ;on the, averaged The writer has exceeded this many times; but in bad years has not quite reached it. This wotild average about 17lba per day r'otifid the year, but as a cow may average only ten months in /hilk. <300 days) h^r true average during the milking'penpd works out at over 201bs daily. . THis latter is the figure to take-as : a.,bas|s. Eycryone who keeps' a milk" record will find that the of Ms Jactjial milking will work out round tins'2olbs daily. If he gets less^his cows, are, doing' badly; if morej'' hfs. cows'" doing well. It used to be "said in, a general way that cows in all stages; jof milking should average a "barn gallon" daily, and this works out ! 'fit slightly over 2Ubs. Much, of courae, depends on the 1 feeding—-roots apd straw hvill not" do mucH^'but cake ai^d meal must be added! ■ ; On the otJier fiand, it is quite possible to overdo this, and feed more than is repaid! |n milk. Again, the average >may be ddnsiderably raised by eliminating i^ro or three of the iinferior. cows. . It:>is pretty safe to say that,,any\cow\yielding less than 400 gallons is "a boarder" that yields no profit, but "elimiriat'iori" is a polite phrase for selling a bad cfew to your neighbour; generally,;however, one's neighbotirs understand all .about it themselves. • ■'•-■•: ■»-••; t » mi i ' - . i