INFLUENCE OF FOOD ON MILK. (From the Irish Farmers' Gazette.)

Otago Witness, Issue 554, 12 July 1862, Page 2

INFLUENCE OF FOOD ON MILK. (From the Irish Farmers' Gazette.)

Cow? tint hay:> a tendency to fatten, when supplied v.ith additional food rich in oil and in fle^h forming matters like Hu^ced cake, have the power of converting that food into fat. They do not produce a richer milk, and m,iy even produce a smaller quantity. It is this, then, which renders all inv^fcigitiotH vc-sn? >fcin^ the influence of food on the qniutit ' ami qu "li f y of milk so extremely ditlicult. According to theory, it would appear tli it rich fond in oily or fatty in ittf r wo aid be extremely useful ibf prolucinq a rich milk ; but in practice we do not always find this to be bo. Indeed, we oftui find tint very rich fool lias just fie other effect, it pi educes by no means a b^ter milk, but a smaller quantity and fat and fli>«h instead of milk, bcdidcithe tendency which cows that, are go 1 1 fattener.s Inve to convert peculiarly v'uh. foul into fat, there arc some purely practicil considerations to be taken into account bafore we can decide upon the quality of foo 1 which ought to he given to milking cows. It it. well known That oily matters pas-, lapidly into the milk. Cow.s that are supplied too abundantly with linseel cake produce milk that does not mike butter. A wry curious instance was biought under ray notiso some time ajro, by Mr. Batthropp, of Crettingham, in East Suffolk, of milk furnislu.i^ cream that cjuld not be in ide into butter. When put into the churn it bevt up into froth, and could not be converted into batter : the nheiiiL would not separate, and I have boon, informed by Mr. B.irthropp that he ha I given his cows linsectl-cakp in considerable quantities. This execs, of linsoed-cake, and, perhaps the want of good dry hay, had evidently the effect of producing too much liquid fat ; and in trying to separate as well as I could the solid or crystalised fat from the liquid fat I obtained this proportion : one-third of solid fat, in round numbers, and 23 parts of liquid fat. In churning the whole of it was made up into a sort of froth ; in fact it could not be churned. The butter remained a liquid, even at the cold period of the year when the milk was analysed— mmely, la-it January. I have never become acquainted with so striking a case, as showing the influence of a great excess of oily food on the quality of the cronm and butter. In of the quality of cream, more especially the fatty poitiou of it, the butter, I would likewise tike this opportunity of observing that bid oil-cike, and especially bad linseed cake, does a sjr^at deal more harm than is generally .supposed by the dairymen. Tlie inferior taste of the milk of stall-fed cows is wellknown ; but I bolivQ it is not so well known tint the whole.iomene-i'J of milk is affected by the abominable matters which are occasionally puL into Unseed cakes. At the present time, oil-cake crushers seem to enjoy the privilege of incorporating any kind of oil refuse, no matter what it is, with linseed cake ; and since this has been so, wa heir more frequently of diseased milk, and of milk which has a a disagreeable flavor. When the neees-ity arise* I'mfeeding cows with additional food, and linseed cake is found by practical meu to be preferable to other kinds of food, I would suggest that it is money well laid out to buy tho very best and finest cake, and not, for the .sake of the lower figure, get it of au inferior quality. The u=e of watery )oo J, distillery wash, the acid waters of stared makers, and similar refuss, make the milk, as is well known, watery, and dispense with tho necessity of mixing water with the milk afterwards. By far the most commonly adulterated material is watery to^. Water is not so much added to ihe milk, after it is drawn "ff from the animal, as it is incorporated w'th the milk in the system before. It is well known that food which contains lactic acid has a tendency to produce an abundance of milk ; and when animals are iiid with concentrated food, such as bean-meal or cake» it may perhaps be advisable, in the absence of brewers' grains or distillery refuse — two materials which contain lactic acid— to generate some lactic acid by keeping barley-meal for some time in contact with water, and letting it slightly ferment, perhaps with some vegetable refuse matter, which has a tendency to

hasten the formation of lactic acid from barley-meal. By doins? this, I am inclined to think that concentrated food, like cotton cake, bean-meal, or rape-cake, would be rendered more digestable, and more readily made available for the production of milk of a good character. — From a Lecture on Milk by Professor Voelcker, delivered before the Royal Agricultural S'wiety of England.