MILK FLOW IN A HEIFER CALF.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 6 September 1913, Page 10

MILK FLOW IN A HEIFER CALF.

It was reported a short time ago that a heifer calf ownew by a North Island dairy farmer had developed aflow of milk, and it was supposed to be due to the action of another calf sucking her. Another case of the kind is reported upon in The Journal of the Department of Agriculture of Victoria, by Mr R. J. Archer, senior dairy inspector. On a, farm of Mr .Wm. Ken*, at Camperdown, «a. three-quarterbred Jersey heifer commenced at about six months old to secrete milk, and at nine months old she was giving olb of apparently rich milk once daily on scant pasture in the middle of summer. One can reasonably assume that had she been well fed and milked twice daily the yield would have been much greater. But though in milk and on poor feed the heifer was in excellent condition. It is known, points out MiArcher, that a calf's start in life is no haphazard affair, but is rigorously determined by its ancestors for some generations. Such beinsj the case the heifer has every promise of being a .splendid dairy animal, for her granddam, a Jersey-Ayrshire cross, was winner of the butter test as the Camperdown show in 1907, yielding 4o?;lb of milk and 2.701b of butter daily. While maternity is the prime cause of milk secretion, it is not the only means of stimulating the activity of "the udder. The regular removal of the saline fluid in the gland of the virgin animal, or even the stimulation of the organ by the sucking of another calf, is sometimes sufficient to cause the secretion of milk of normal character in considerable quantities. The phenomenal udder development and subsequent lame flow of milk of this particular heifer were caused by the sucking: of another calf. When this was noticed the calves were separated, but the amount of milk in the heifer's udder necessitated milking it daily, with the result that the flow increased. The milk was analysed, and the fat and milk sugar were found to be sightly greater than usual. It will be interesting to note if the precocity of this heifer affects her future as a milker.