SCIE.tifIC DAIRYING

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1679, 4 May 1904, Page 65

SCIENTIFIC DAIRYING

(By JaS. MeCreath, F.H.A.S., F.C.'S.) STUDIES IN MILK PRODUCTION. W. L. Carlyle and F. W. Woll (Bulletin >* 102. Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station). This investigation, which is reported in derail in a considerable pamphlet, was conducted with cows in the University dair v herd, and covers a period of four years and a half—viz., from the founding of the present herd, in the fall of 1898, until May, 1903. During this time complete records aire _at hand for 38 .cows, representing the_ following breeds': Jersey, Guernsey, Holstein, Shorthorn and Red Polled. The primary object of the investigation has been to ascertain the capacity of the various cows for a large and economical production of milk and butter, and to study the sysrtem of feeding which was required to reach this end, in case of thei individual cows in the herd:— '‘The general plan of feeding adopted has been the one which we consider the fundamental requirement in the successful management of a modern dairy—viz., to feed each cow as much rough feed as she will eat up clean, and, in addition, such amounts of the available common concentrated feeds as she will give returns for in. production of milk without any material change in live weight, the character and amounts of gram feed being, therefore, adjusted according to the peculiar characteristic® of each cow. r ed according to this system, our cows have made very creditable returns in the production of milk andi butter-fat during the period under Investigation—viz., on the,, average lor the 38 cows and for four years, 7340ibs of milk, and 3071bs of butter-fat, equivalent to 37 l olb9 of butter per head annually. Our studies of the data snowing the production and feed consumption of the cows in our herd have led to a consideration of many points of interest importance to dairymen.” A BRIEF STATEMENT of the main resu 1 ts~dbiamed is given below, and the reader is reierred to the main part of the bullotion for a more complete discussion of the subjects treated, I.—The average annual yield of milk for the various cows in the herd ranged from 10,960.3 to 4033.01b5, the production of fat ranged from 474.73 to> 183.641b* and the net profit returned by the cows, froni (approximately) JBI6 to <£4. The lugi;y?v

[ average production per year for any cow in the lierd was . that of the Jersey cow Gojct. winch is credited with a production -of 7621.6.bs of' milk and 474;731b5:0f bpt.er-fa;?, and a net profit (vaiu,e of blittor and skim milk minus cost of rood) of ,£l6. -This cow also, produced: the maximum, amount of. butter-lat of any cow in tlie herd during 365 consecutive days—viz., 5.2.12-lbs; and, returned the hiJicst net profit of any cow during this time, w.th Ti. 7. Twe.key-two of the cows produced wore than 3uolbs oi butter-fat pei - ye. r op the average, and 25 out of the t.B cows yielded a profit of T 8 or more over the cost of the food eaten. 2. 'l!n,e average production of ten cows during their year of maximum production was 376.51ibs of butter-fat, and their average nc>c profit dill 10s. During the year foilwwiiig their maximum production, the same cows yielded, on the average, 281.471 bs oi butier-iat and a net profit of ci»B 3s. Gows making exceptionally high records'for a single year are almost certain to require a proportion of the sitcc.iedi. g yedr for recovery, and will therefore give a much smaller production and lower net profit for that year. 3. Cows belonging to the different breeds represented in the herd yielded, on the average, as follows: lbs per annum. Red Rolled (one cow) ... 461.81 butter-fat Holstein (five cows) ... 851.62 ~ Guernsey (nine cows)... 319.35 Jersey (iwelve cows) ... 351.13 ~ Siionhorn (eleven cows) 281.73 „ The average net profit returned by cowa of these breeds decreased in the saifie order from Til 7s (Red Rolled) to T 7 4g (Shorthorn). 4. —'lhe cows mTHE UNIVERSITY HERD may be considered as representing three different types of cows —viz., extreme dairy type, large dairy type, and dualpurpose type. If tlie results for cows of the same type be averaged, we find that the' largo dairy cows lead in average annual production of fat with 325.2-Jibs, the extreme dairy ccws being next .with 310.211b:-;. and the dual-purpose cows last wuh 292.591 be. The rank of the cows, according to net profit returned, decreased ih the same order, iron T 9 ior the large dairy cows, to T 7 10s for the dual-purposo cows. In tjie opinion of the authors, cows of tire large darky type of the' particular b.e .d suiting the fancy of the farmer, and weighing, say, 10501 bs or more, will, everything considered, be found the most satisfactory for the dairy farmer; cows of the dual-purpose type, on the other hand, are to be recommended for lYnuers who Wish to utilise more or less o. the rough leed produced on their farms ior raising beer lor market, ..in conjunction w.th keeping a number of cows for milk production. It is not, in our opinion, the part of wisdom for our dairy- : men to f elect- small refined ccws with a j spare habit of body in an extreme degree as Re most desirable type l of dairy cow. I s.—Cows of exceptional merit as producers were found within all the dif- ! ierent types or breeds represented in our herd; Die main reliance in selecting cows for the dairy herd should therefore he placed, ncc in any particular type or breed, but on individual excellence for dairy purposes. The best indications; of true merit in dairy cows are a large digestive capacity, a-3 evidenced by great d pth and length of body, and a general refin omen „ in conformation, as shown by fineness of bone in the legs, a clean-cut fe..iiniiie head, a long and fine neck, light shoulders, prominent backbone, a fine, el stio qualify of udder, and a well-de-veloped milk-vein system. Minor points are fi.e, silky hair; thin, unctuous andi movable sk-ii; large bright eyes, and a general sprightly appearance. 6. —Tlie milk produced. by the cows deer.vase d somewhat in quality as the cows advanced in age. Tlie average per cent. fo*r ihe year with cows in our herd came as follows: first year, 4.49 per cent.; second year, 4.40 per cent.; third year, 429 per cent.; and fourth year, 4.17 per cent. 7. The flow of milk decreased on the average for all cows in our herd and for four years, . with 8 per cent, for eacli month during the progress of the lactarfcion period, and the production of butterfat decreased with 7.3 per cent, for each month. 8. —Our DUAL-PURPOSE COWS maintained llieir flow of milk during the progress of tlie lactation period as well, or better, than cows of the dairy types; the shrinkage in tire production of milk between the third and the fourth weeks of the lactation period for the same cowsi was 44 per cent, for the extreme dairy cows 59 per cent, for tlm large dairy cows.' and 49 per cent, for the dual-pur-pose cows; and in 'the proportion of fat for the same types of cowsi 43, 60, and 46 per cent, respectively. 9. —The rations feck to the best producers in tlie herd during the winter periods contained, on an matter, 2.071 b s of digestible protein. 15.22ibs of digestible carbo-hydrates and! tat,, and had a nutritive ratio of 1:7.4. The low-producing cows received, on the average, 21.141 b.-j of dry matter, 1*56 lbs of digestible protein, and 12.201bs of car-bo-hydrates and fat (nutritive ratio, 1:7.8/, while intermediate figures were obtained for the cows with a medium production. 10. —Only 10 cows out of a total of 33 required more than 21bs of digestible protein in their average daily winter rations under our system of feeding for a large and economical production. The case of the cow Ella, weighing about lOOOlis* is especially worthy of note, from Hie fact that she received only 1.481bs of digestible protein per day in her winter ration, and 12.1Slbs cf digestible carbo-hydrates andl fat (nutritive ratio 1 , 1:8.2), and' produced 343.b> of gutter fat yearly, as the average for four years.. iii j i ’ An alteration was made in -The sheep schedule at j, the Manawatu A. and P. me ti =. g recently, tlie class for unregistered LiDi.6insy.and Romneys being struct ou*'. u i.-e"nvotioii. of Mr R. S. Abraham. '•bun? fivrmers have decided to, escb: ■ : w.>-:per.'tive-bacon factory.