TAINTED MILK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19918, 11 April 1928, Page 15

TAINTED MILK.

CORRECTIVE EXPERIMENTS. To determine the effect of succulent feeds on the flavour and odour of milk, and to ascertain the best methods for feeding such crops, the Department of Agriculture, "U.S.A., conducted a series of tests at one of its experimental farms. Experiments were made with dried beet pulp, green oats and peas, pumpkins, carrots, sugar beet lape, soy-beans, and kale. The cows selected for the investigations were giving milk relatively free from abnormal flavours and odours when fed a basic hay and grain ration, and varied in stage of lactation from those fresh to those nearing end of lactation period. Besides the succulent feed, the animals received, in proportion of milk produced, varying quantities of the following grain mixture: 1001b. each of hominy feed, bran, and oats, and 501b. each of cottonseed meal and linseed-oil meal. In addition, they were given all the alfalfa hay they would readily consume. The cows were divided into groups of four each, and interchanged at intervals of four days. Dried beet pulp, soaked and fed one hour beforo milking, in quantities "up to 301b., produced but a slightly abnormal flavour m the milk. The same ration immediately after milking had no effect on its flavour or odour. Similar results followed the feeding of a like quantity of green oats and peas one hour before and after milking. Both kale and rape, fed in similar quantities, one hour prior tto milking, produced a decidedly abnormal flavour in the milk, but had a negligible effect when fed afterward. Soyabeans, fed one hour before milking, tenfaed to improve the quality of the milk.