THOROUGH MILKING.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11630, 11 May 1912, Page 7

THOROUGH MILKING.

The importance of thorough milking has been frequently emphasised, and reasons have been given to show why, unless the process of "stripping" is conscientiously performed, the dairyman finds his milk yield decreasing and his cows "drying off" sooner than usual. Careless milking soon plays havoc wi f h the records of a herd. A dairy farmer in the Goulboum Valley, Victoria,, had a herd of 34- milkers—not of the very best strain, but well up to the average. The herd in the early autumn was only yielding an aggregate of 1481b of milk per day. This so startled the owner that he set about at once to find the reason. "Did he attend to the stripping?" he was asked, and the response was', "No, we do no stripping at all." It was then determined to give stripping a fair trial. The herd was fed on precisely the same ration and looked after in' exactly the same way as before, the food supplied being crushed oats and barley mixed with bran, together with maize fodder and the grass which the animals obtained in the paddocks during the day. At. both milking times, morning and evening, the owner personally supervised the stripping. No cow was allowed to be released from the bail until he had tested her himself, and if the work was not complete, the milker was required to go back and finish it. Some of these strippings were afterwards found to contain up tea 10 to 12 per cent, of butter-fat. At the end of the first 12 days it was found that 'the production had been more than doubled. The daily yield had gone up to 4201b. and this in spite of the fact that five of the cows had almost dried off before the stripping began. Hence the results in the short period of 12 days were found to be fully sufficient to make a difference as between success and failure. The owner reports that as time goes on the amount of profit becomes more and more pronounced.