MANAGEMENT OF COWS IN HOLLAND

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1685, 15 June 1904, Page 63

MANAGEMENT OF COWS IN HOLLAND

Holland has often been called the cow’s paradise, aud it well deserves the name. In- the care and kindly treatment of their cows the Dutch cannot be surpassed. In Holland the cows are turned out to pasture in May, and do not return to the stable until November. During the cold, damp days of early spring they wear blankets in the pasture to protect them from the weather: At milking time they are not driven to the barn to be milked, as is the custom in this country, hut instead the milkmaids go to the cows wherever they maybe in the pasture, and carry back the milk, not wishing to give the cows any unnecessary travel. From the time they leave the barn in May until they return in autumn, they receive no other feed than grass. During the winter the grain feed consists al most entirely of oilcake, feeding from 21b to 41b each day. The principal feed, however, is hay, each cow receiving nearly 301 b daily. It takes the great capacity of these cows to handle so large a quantity of hay. The cows are put in the stable in the fall, and are not let out again until the following spring. During this time they are given the best of care; scarcely an hour passes day or night that they are not visited by an attendant. They are watered, fed and milked with the greatest regularity, and given every comfort possible.

The Dutch owe their success in no small degree in establishing so fine a breed of dairy cattle to the careful selection of their breeding stock. Only a few of the choicest hulls are kept foxsires, and the greatest care is also exercised in selecting females.