FARM AND FIELD

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 1141, 24 July 1918, Page 7

FARM AND FIELD

y f f ORIGINAL ARTICLES. (By F. 0.5.) I '. CURE OF HARD MILKERS. There is a tendency to regard the i hard milker as curable only in one way ) ■ —i.e., by selling to someone else, says a writer in the Australasian. Yet hi the case of a young cow, of a good ' milking strain, it is worth attempting : a cure. Teat-dilators may be tried. There are inserted in the teat duct after milking, and left there until the next milking. They are kept in place by a tape passing through the eye of the dilator, which is tied around the teat. Other instruments are obtainable that are self-retaining. Great care must be taken to sterilise the dilator before inserting, to prevent danger of introducing germs. This is easily managed by boiling the instrument in water for ten minutes, and placing it in position when cool again. To ensure an easy passage, the tube should bo smeared with vaseline, which has been kept in an air-tight bottle. The action of the dilator is to relax the pressure of the sphincter muscles, which may be closing the opening of the teat, i Sometimes the hardness is caused by a small growth in the duct. A bis- . tonry is employed for removing this, j and veterinary attendance should be ; obtained, if possible. In the hands of i a skilled stockman, it is a simple operation enough, but care must be taken to sterilise instruments. The cow's legs are strapped together above the hocks, the outside of the instrument is smeared with vaseline, and the teat held with the left hand while the instrument is carefully inserted into the duct, until the end passes the obstruction by about an inch. The knife rod is pushed up, so that the knife projects, and the instrument is withdrawn cutting off the obstruction in its passage. The knife must then be withdrawn into the tube to avoid cutting the passage. The bistoury is employed while the cow is in milk. Owing to the- danger of introducing germs through uncleanliness, veterinary authorities oppose the use of the dilators or the bistoury by stockowners, and advise massaging the teat with olive oil or castor oil. This may prove successful in simple cases.

SKIM-MILK FOR PICS. Protein, ;md particularly digestible protein, is the ingredient in which nearly all the common home-grown foodstuffs of the farm are more or less deficient, and it is really the chronic ; want of a sufficiency of it which generally embarrasses dairy farmers in all their animal-feeding operations—if they only knew it. It is just here where skim-milk, with its more than enough protein, can he put to its utmost practical use. Skim-milk contains practically all the natural protein of the milk, as well as the milk sugar and mineral matter. Just as protein is indispensable for flesh formation, mineral matter is equally so for bone formation. These two formations—flesh and bone—constitute real growths in ', the animal, as distinct from the mere accumulation of fatty tissue. It should , be every bacon-producer's care to so ■ feed his animals that fat formation • waits on flesh formation, and good , bacon on both. This cannot be ac- j complished without adequate protein j and mineral matter—the peculiar vir-! tue of skim-milk. \ In no other food in nature does' either protein or mineral matter occur as assimilable and as palatable as in the curd and ash respectively of milk —either whole or skimmed. In having a feeding material of such nature daily in his hand, the dairy-farmer is certainly in a favoured position as a producer of prime .'bacon. It calls, however, for proper use, viz., that of bal- ' ancing other fodders not so plentifully endowed with precious protein. The mere absence of protein, fat, starch, and mineral matter in a food is not enough—a further necessity is that they be present in proper proportion. Skim-milk's one sidedness is due to itsexcessive protein-content and the comparative deficiency of carbohydrate; but another imperfection which must also be allowed for is the water content —superabundant, yet dissociable—which unduly adds to the bulk. If skim-milk alone be the pig's portion, his stomach becomes fully distended long before he has acquired a sufficiency of starchy ingredient. Overgorging is the only alternative to going deficient—neither of which is ever as- • sociated with maximum returns. Some j farmers foolishly think that, by sour- | ing the milk and discarding the whey, j they are getting rid of the surplus j water only. This is a serious mistake, I because the water removed in this way takes along with it the milk-sugar—the starchy ingredient in which the skim- ' mills; is already deficient. I Extraction of the surplus water is not commercially practicable, and would be folly to attempt, seeing that the same desired effect can be arrived at by supplementing the milk with other foodstuffs over-rich in starch (to bali\ !;<•<• the surplus protein of the milk i solids) and as free from water as pos- j sible (to balance the excessive water- i content of the milk). The ideal "thickening," therefore, for skim-milk, should be the more starchy and drier grain concentrates, viz., maize, wheat, barley, etc., and pollard, which, though fattening in themselves, have a higher proportion of starch to protein than is required, and only need a little more of , the latter to make them about all that a pig requires in the way of food—that is, if adequate water, is also provided. Skim-milk is admirably adapted to supplv the little which grain lacks; and, because the deficiency is little, it can bo fully met by an amount of skimmilk not beyond the pig's capacity to absorb. If any more than 31b. of skini- ; milk is fed to'each pound of grain, the ! farmer may depend that the pig's pro- ' gress is being hampered for want of ; sufficient starch. This ratio should 1 never be exceeded, even in a young, ' growing pig, in which the demand for ; protein and mineral is much greater than in an older one. As the pig develops to full size, the protein skimniilk should be still further reduced, even eventually down to the pound to poiind ratio. ' Provided norma] times prevail, the pig will repay with interest I evcrv pound of pollard so used, i V farmer content to. use bare milk • gets, from 5851b. of skim-milk, a return of about 14|lb. of carcase bacon, 1 which, at 4d. a lb., is worth 4s. lOd. ; 1 while another farmer believing in copious pollard can get back all the - pollard cost and a further 9s. from the I same quantity of skim-milk. By spendi ing 16s. for lb' bushels of pollard, to supplement the 5851b. erf skim-milk,

761b., or £1 ss. worth, of carcase bacon is produced .instead of the 14J-lb which might be expected from bare milk. Deducting the 16s. for pollard leaves 9s. clean to compare with his sceptical neighbour's 4s. lOd. To get the increased turnover, with its gross money return of £1 55., instead of 4s. 10d., the farmer certainly had first to lay out 16s. The man who is not willing to spend this is practically accepting 4s. lOd. in preference to 9s.'

BIC MILKERS AND DRINKERS Commenting on the water requin ments of dairy cows, an expert of th, Agricultural Department says it is ini. portant that an abundance of watei close at hand, and not to cold, be supplied to heavy milking cows. Cows' that are not producing milk do not re- . quire to be watered more than once a ' day in the winter time, and at that season they do not seem to care for it more often than this. In summer the consumption of water by cattle is greater on account of the greater evaporation from the skin, and while i cattle will thrive when watered once a \ day they relish it more often, and will : do better if supplied twice daily. Cows on heavy feed producing large quantities of milk should always have access to good water at least twice a day ai all seasons.

For the best results with dairy cows water of good quality should be supplied close at hand, since if they be required to walk a long distance in cold weather, on account of the discomfort of exposure, they will not drink a sufficient amount to supply the demands of the body, and will give a less amount of milk than they otherwise would, on account of not having consumed a sufficient quantity of water. In other words, the cow may suffer for lack of suitable water just as easily as for lack of food. It will no doubt surprise many to learn thai it is possible for a cow to consume upwards of 30 gallons of water in a single day ,and that the consumption of between 20 and 30 gallons of watei daily _by a high-producing cow is the rule it would seem reasonable to suppose that much better results would be obtained if provision were made so that this large amount of water could be consumed at various times during the day rather than at infrequent intervals. Successful dairymen fully realise that the highest point of production can only be reached when a sensible ration is combined with the most favourable facilities for furnishing water so that it is accessible when he cows need it rather than at the jwner's will.