“LOAFING” FOR COWS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25180, 10 May 1947, Page 5

“LOAFING” FOR COWS

BENEFICIAL EFFECT ON PRODUCTION The farmer who plays up to the cow’s loafing instinct without curbing her freedom to come and go as she pleases is rewarded with better milk, it was reported recently on the basis of State-sponsored experiments conducted on 16 New York farms, says an American newspaper. The farmers participating in the experiment built “loafing bams”—a sort of bovine lounge where a eow may contentedly chew her cud in a social atmosphere. The big difference between a regular barn and a loafing barn, which is really a sheltered pen, is that cows may wander in and out of the loafing barn as they please. The cows are not fastened to stanchions as they are in a regular barn. Dr. Fred W. Graves, senior State milk sanitarian, reported to the Metropolitan Certified Milk Producers’ Association on the loafing barn programme, which was started last April. He addressed the association at its annual meeting in the Hotel Martinique. ‘‘We have discovered four things thus far that are benefiting farmers who have built loafing barns for {heir milking cows,” Dr. Graves said. ‘‘First, we have discovered that when cows are properly bedded daily in the loafing barns they are cleaner and suffer fewer injuries. Second, the consumption of roughage is higher, and the nutritional value of the milk is increased. “Third, where the ceiling is at least 10ft high, it is not necessary to clean the barn daily, conserving manpower. Fourth, if the manure is allowed to accumulate and pack, and sprinkled with superphosphate once or twice weekly, the fertilisation value is greatly increased.” A Chatham Islands correspondent writes: —“The islanders are looking forward with regret to the last trip of the Port Waikato for the winter, this taking place about May 23, unless more settlers decide that it is too late to ship sheep, and mqre are withdrawn. The company has decided not to carry cattle unless enough for two trips are forthcoming. Consequently the. very fine lines of beef that wer.e to have been shipped will not now be on the market until the spring."