DAIRYING IN IRELAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1250, 13 February 1896, Page 7

DAIRYING IN IRELAND.

fSomo points in dairy management are well brought out in an address to his fellow farmers by Mr W. Gibson, of Limerick, and although the appeal is directly to Irish farmers, it will be found of considerable indirect interest to farmers here, “ Why do some farmers," he asks “ say winter milk is the most paying item the farmer can produce ? First: Because they keep milkers, not beef cattle. Secondly : Because they feed their milkers properly, milk them at regular intervals, keep them warm, and never allow them to drink cold water during cold, frosty weather, and they never forget that milch cattle require to be supplied with salt and kept clean. Thirdly : Because they cool their milk, and drive off the fodder odours, before they cover it to send it awajq and are consequently never ‘ cut ’ for having foul smelling milk. Fourthly : Because they note the cost of keeping, and the produce of the winter calver, for her entire milking season. Why do some farmers say producing winter milk is a dead loss ? First: Because they keep utterly unsuitable cattle. Secondly: Because they feed either not enough, or as if they wanted to make beef, not milk; they keep their cattle starved with cold, allow them to drink cold water, never give them a grain of salt, take no trouble to keep them clean, nor will they get out of bed to have them milked at regular intervals, but allow them to be milked at seven or eight a.m., and again at four or five p.m. Thirdly : Because they cover up their milk while the animal heat is in it, being too lazy to cool it, and are consequently constantly cut in price for foul smelling or sour milk, which loss could bo avoided by standing the tankard in cold water and keeping the milk stirred for ten minutes. Fourthly : Because they note the cost of keeping during the winter, but cau never say what the produce of the winter calverp turned out for the entire of their milking season. Feed a winter calver, according to her size and appetite, with from 21b to 41b linseed cake per day (21b is usually sufficient), 21b dried grains, or crushed oats, or barley meal, in a long warm drink at midday, 2st of root 3 and 21b bran at night, and 71b of hay after each feed, or, better still, cut up through each feed, and you will have cause to praise the winter milker; starve her and neglect her, and she will give you cause to curse her, or rather your own folly and laziness. Adopting winter dairying on a reasonable scale would bring a profit of .£2,000,000 per annum at least to Irish farmers. Neglecting winter dairying for another five years will make Irish butter making at any time of year an utterly unprofitable industry. Farmers of Ireland open your eyes to the competition you have to face. If you continue to allow the foreigner to lay hold of your customers during the winter, he will hold them all the year ; and your butter will year by year be of less value. Do not believe the interested parties who tell you to make keeping butter in summer to be stored for winter use ; the days when that would pay are gone by. Consumers want butter freshly made every week of the year, and if you will not supply it, someone else will, and hold the market and your summer make will go for next to nothing. You have a soil and climate much superior to Scandinavia. What others do well you can do better if you only try. Try before it is too late/ 7