THE INTERMEDIATE COW

Northern Advocate, 16 February 1926, Page 6

THE INTERMEDIATE COW

THE HEED’S GREATEST CUESE. Notwithstanding the self-evident fact that cows vary greatly in milk-yielding capacity, it is difficult, to get most dairymen to keep any sort of record of the quantity of milk . obtained from individual members of the herd. It is the intermediate cow which is the curse of many herds. » . If she wore a really worthless milker, the most "careless dairy farmers would get rid of her, but on account of her fairly higly milk yield when freshly calved, or her ability to produce just enough milk to delude her owner into thinking she is paying her way, shi retains her place in thf hqrd. It is thu class of cow which it is very difficult to detect, except by a systematic daily ot weekly weighing of milk over a lactation period. Even those herds which have a high average milk production, but in which weighing and recording is not practised, would be improved by a rigorous milk recording system, as there is almost sure to be one or more cows whose milk yield would be much below the best cows, and which could be culled and replaced with advantage.