KEEPING A MILK RECORD.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11110, 31 October 1901, Page 2

KEEPING A MILK RECORD.

Bt Mas Fuftssoß E Sextos, Enronum, Tbe advantages of keeping a milk record are very many, yet how few farmers will bother to keep one. At the present time, when farmers are complaining of hard struggles to get along at all, they cannot afford to ignore anything, however trifling, that ■will help to "swell their profits. It will not do to go on as oiir great-grand-fathers did, without really knowing where our losses or where our profits come in. Every fanner should, if necessary, keej separate accounts of every (branch of the work, so as to find out'where any loss occurs. Even it ttie iann, as a> "whole, is paying, there ie very often something which, if not causing direct loss, is still not producing any profit; and if farmers would talc© the trouKe to find out, they could often put.matters right. Moet farmers, small ones partictUarfy, will not, bother to find out whether the dairy is paying or not; { they go on, keeping all sorts of cows, many poor milkers, keeping calves from bad milking mothers, and using brills from bad milking strains. They So not reeily know what a> single cow in the herd is" actually giving. It is true they may bare some vague idea as to which cows are the best milkers; but even there they may be deceived, .as a cow that never has a great deal of milk may, by continuous, steady milking, give more in the end than one that has a full udder for a time, but falls off rapidly or ■soon goes dry. Very few farmers can tell you in pounds or gallons what any single cow : gives, nor do they know the quality of any of their milk. : It cannot be too stronefc urged upon farmers that this is a great mistake. Cows I vary, so much both in quantity and quality of milk that in most therds there is one or more, sometimes many, cows—that ■do not even pay for their keep. This ! necessarily pusUe down the profits of the 1 whole, and the fanner would be infinitely better off without such animals at a>ll. If . he does not keep a mfik record he does not ' know whether ihe has any of these useless J weeds or not. Some may think I they can judge well enough without any record, but unless ~ they have had a good deal of experience with the use of a record they cannot have any real knowledge of the subject, and even with such experience memory is apt to fail,and the total yield for the year cannot be anything like accurately known. The profits of the dairy, of course, depend entirely on what this yield actually is. Many cows do not yield above 400 to 450 gallons of milk per annum, but a great many fairly good dairy Shorthorns give as much as 600 gallons per annum. It is quite possible, however, by only keeping cows Which are known to yield, say, over 600 gallons, and by only keeping the calves ifrom euohf cows, to raise the gallons or more. But it is only possible to do this where a milk record is kept, and the exact yield of every cow known, so that all yielding too little can be weeded out and their .calves not kept for the dairy. In selling cows, too, where a record is kept, a good one will go a long way towards securing a good price for a cow or her. calf. The advantage of knowing the yield of each cow is very obvious, and it can be easily done without occupying much time. The necessary apparatus can be bought for a small outlay. It consists of a spring balance eupported on a tripod, with a pail of the right weight, so that when it is on, empty,the hajnd on the dial stand at 0. Each milker draws the whole of one cow's mi_k into one vessel, if possible, and when finished pours it-into the padl on the machine, notes the weight on a slate opposite the name or number of the cow, places the milk into tne receiving vessel, washes Mβ "hands, and proceeds to <milk the next cow. This is all very quickly done, and really" mokes but .little difference to the length of time occupied by the-whole milking. If a cow is a very heavy milter, her milk can, of course, be weighed in> two portions. Weighing is very much quicker, handier, and better than measuring, and as 10.321bs go to thte gallon, it is easy to reckon it up as gallons; 101b to fihe gallon bedng quite accurate enough for mosrfe purposes. When the milking is over, the byre-mah, or, preferably, the* farmer himself, should enter the record «om the , slate onto tlbe sheet used for the - purpose. By" diing- this he can see at' once if any cow is filling in her milk supply; illness is thus detected in I its first stages, cows wMch are ■'specially sensitive to changes of weather are noticed, iMod are best got rid of, and, not least important, the . bad milkers are discovered. All - these advantages, by so little trouble, are surely worth having. Record sheets can be bought, but any farmer can make them for himself, as follows: —

If desired, a column may be left for the milker's name, and, of course, every farmer •will have a herd.book, in which the -date ] of purchase, calving, number of calves, and '' all details will be entered. It is also a great advantage to know thte ■ quality of every cow's milk, «s this is of more importance tihan quantity for bufcfcermakmg. It would, of course, "fee too muck trouble, and quite unnecessary, to test thie every day, but every cow's milk should 'be tested occasionally, even if it' -is only before purchase, or a couple of months after calving, though.it is better'to test them more frequently. Do not test the rSilk when the cow is in heat, as such a best is unfair to the cow. In fairness, to the public, a firmer shtoxild, whenever*-possible, get rid of all cows yielding.milk with less than 3 per cent, of butter fat, «nd only keep calves from those giving the richest milk. The percentage of butter fat is very easily and quickly tested with the Babcoek, Ger- : ber, and other centrifugal testers, In- ■ structions are given iritn each, and ali though at first sight they may appear some- , what expereive, they are well worth their , price to every dairy farmer..

Name of • Cow. Morn. Even. Total. Remarks. Daisy Damly Rose lOlbs Tibs 301be 141be lOlbs 1 291bs 2ilba i 171bs I 5SlbB I I - Off feed Improving