THE COWS POINT OF VIEW

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 152, 24 December 1926, Page 16

THE COWS POINT OF VIEW

CLASHING WITH THAT OF

COMMERCE.

If the cow could speak, and were interviewed on the subject, sho would probably say that the collection, distribution, and ultimate destination of milk were no concern of hers; that sho was only intended by Nature to give sufficient to supply her calf or calves until such time as they could fend for themselves —nothing more', nothing less. And, if sho wcro a sensible and deepthinking cow, she would dilate forcibly on the ultimate effects this excessive production of milk will have on the bovine race, writes Mr. J. Forbes, of Truro, in the "Veterinary Becord."

Agricultural exports, in their .advocacy of milk recording, tell us to go and produce more milk, and still moro milk. They say it is quite simple. Give your cows so many pounds of food, then it follows —as the night follows the day—out come so many pounds of milk with mathematical precision. The cow's point of view doesn't matter.^ Milk recording is, up to a point, essential commercially for the purpose of weeding out poor milking and profitless cows, but when it is pushed to such a pitch as to convert a self-respecting cow into a mere milk-producing machine, Nature begins to rebel. Excessive milking properties are to be deprecated; the animal economy cannot stand up to them; consequently, such diseases, as tuberculosis, abortion, sterility, Johne's disease, mammitis, milk fever, as well as digestive disorders, are alarmingly on the increase. Sooner or later the cow's point of view, as interpreted by the profession, is bound to clash with that of commerce.