ON THE HOLDING UP OF MILK BY COWS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3199, 25 September 1917, Page 8

ON THE HOLDING UP OF MILK BY COWS

It is concluded by r Berlin professor, vcho has experimented on the matter, that there are two phases of the phenomenon o£ the retention of milk by towe, viz.: (1) true holding up; (2) the milt does not flow. These phases have quite difforent causes giving tbe / same result, that is, a reduction in the milk pioduced. In explaining the first phase, the author' (Horr S. G. Zwart) agrees with .Hess in that a cow may ho frightened during milking by various causes (dogs bavkinp, blows, etc.); she then holds tip her milk and milking is of no avail. The truth of this observation is demonstrated by tho fact that on inserting a milking tnbo ill tho teat of a cow holding up her milk a certain amount of milk was. obtained. If .the stoppage had been caused by the premature interruption of the second pfcase. milk could still have been obtained. The stoppage of the flow of milk probably originated in the teat. •Regarding the second pliaee, tho cessa--tion of the flow of milk, it does not'tnko place suddenly, but is observable at the beginning of milking. Thp milking 13 completed sooner and less milk is obtainr e<l. At the end, the teats aro flaccid and shrivelled, and.no more milk can bo obtained with a milking tube. Tho cause is, in this case, a decrease in milk secretion during the second, phase, resulting from some lesion cither of the mammary gland nervous eystwii, or possibly other organs, -whose pathological state can, by reflex action, exert a deleterious action on milk 6ecretion. This condition does not prevent the milking being completed. ' ■