"Milking The Proper Way”

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31304, 25 February 1967, Page 12

"Milking The Proper Way”

The president of the Veterinary Association, Dr. H. G. Rees, would like to see young farmers rely less on the resources of veterinary science and acquire more of the basic skills of sound stock management. This theme in his speech to the association’s recent conference must have been based on his observations of practices on farms. To illustrate it he made the simple point that cows should be milked “ properly ”. The point has been made many times before. Although it seems almost too elementary to repeat, Dr. Rees has seen a need to do so. What, Indeed, is the profit in sophisticated training in farm management, in the growing of better pasture, and in the breeding of herds capable of producing more milk if bad or inefficient practices in the milking-shed reduce the volume of milk that the cows can yield, or if unhygienic methods spread disease? Dr. Rees has restated a simple but very important point. Trials have shown that cows which have been properly prepared for milking not only give more milk but give it for a longer period. Machines and drugs are not substitutes for a perceptive interest in the health and behaviour of farm animals. If Dr. Rees has hit upon a deficiency among young farmers his proposal of short courses in some of the practical skills of farming should be adopted. Technical education in farming need not, however, replace diploma courses in agriculture. Not all the students who take diploma courses benefit from them. Certainly all young farmers—whether or not they have taken academic courses—ought to know and use the best techniques of stockmanship as well as being able to manage the machines, chemicals, and drugs which can only augment or reinforce the basic skills. The young fanners* clubs may be the proper organisations to conduct some self-examination on the point made by Dr. Rees.