The Dairy.

Otago Witness, Issue 1501, 21 August 1880, Page 7

The Dairy.

NOTES ON FARMERS' CATTLE.

Milkers. — To develop milking properties or to perpetuate them, breed with bulls descended from milking families. Keep the cows constantly in milk for from nine to ten months, giving plenty of good stimulating and milk-producing food, summer and winter. Heifers must come in young— my Jerseys do at two years —and be kept iv milk ten months with their first calf, that the milking organisation may be kept in full play for as long & period as possible. Service of Cows.— lt may not be possible to force nature into any partloular ohanneJ, but the experience of breeders has settled upon the practice of taking advantage of the first period of the cow's readiness — not always the first coming in season — to insure the production of a heifer. It is noted that when a bull runs with the herd, there are more heifers than of the other sex, owing to the service at the earliest moment they are in season. Cows should not, as a general rale, be served the first time they come round after calving, but be put off until they are again in season, as they are more likely to stand the service and less likely t) be Injured. After service tie or shut up the cow and do not let her mix with the herd for 21 hours. Calves.— After the oalf has been with the dam a couple of days, if there is no sign of garget in the bag of the latter, teach it to feed from the pail and to be led familiarly with the halter. If the dam's bag is hard and will not yield to the hand-rubbing, let the oalf in to suck and bunt three times a day until the hardness is removed, stripping the teats well after eaoh nursing. Bull calves reared at the pail, at a year old will show a finer head and dewlap than if allowed to nurse, as in the latter performance they are obliged to hold their heads down and necks stretched out so as to occasion too muoh loose skin. They should have good milk every day until turned to graßs, and at a year old have a ring in the nose. A oalf of jeitherflsex will take, from the first to the third week, four to six quarts of milk daily ; from the third to the sixth week, six to eight quarts ; from the sixth to the eighth week, 10 to 12 quarts, Keep before them in a little box whioh they cannot tread in, Borne wheat bran and give them acoesß to a little fine hay after they are a month old. A mixture of wheat bran, ground oats, and oil meal, allowing a couple of quarts a day to eaoh oalf, is excellent food for the youngsters as they grow, and will assist in weaning them from the milk when that is needed for other purposes, or keep them in condition when skimmed milk is substituted for fresh, as it is on most dairy farms after three or four weeks. No matter how fine the breed is, the oalf must be raised on rich, nourishing food to develop its milking qualities as well aa its growth, and an animal stinted during its first year in its natural food, seldom recovers. Cleanliness is of the first im portanoe and freedom from vermin. I Bee now before me a cow of the best pedigree and the richest of milkers, whioh has never developed in aiza and form, and has remained weak and poor beoause, whilst a growing heifer, she was neglected, and the lice and dirt allowed by a careless stableman to over* run her. Salt in a small quantity once a day is better for all the animals than large quantities less often, and a little sulphur mixed with it— Bay one-half to three-quarters of a pound to each cow during the winterwill do them good, and sulphur well rubbed through the hair will keep off the lice from cleanly herds when the cows are well fed, bedded and carded. Before Calving*. — Heifers fed for three months before calving with a little oil meal in addition to their other fodder, acquire, it is said, a larger development of the milk vessels and yield more milk afterwards than if fed as usual. The general practice among farmers and some breeders is to feed high up to the moment of calving, but I have found this a dangerous praotioe with Jerseys, having lost several fine cows in too good condition, from puerperal fever, and 1 consider it safest to withdraw, at least two weeks before parturition, all food except hay. and a little oats or roots. Meat or Fat?— There is a general agitation in the live stock papers looking to the production of beeves, sheep, and hogs yield* ing a fine quality of marble meat rather than huge masses of indigestible fat. The present tendency of fat stock shows is deoidedly favourable to the rearing of animals of less service to the table than to the lard-render-ing industry. Breeding for the Best Kesults. — The best females should be used as well as the best males, and especially in the case of in-and-in breeding, which is only allowable in case bo other sirea of equal excellence are to be had, and the breeder is striving to attain oertain uniformity of excellence. The beßt male, in reference to the particular case, may not be the beat animal of the stock from whioh it is desired to purchase, because he should pre-eminently possess points whioh will either improve or sustain those of the females whioh he is to serve. The properties which a male should poaßess are relative, not absolute : for absolutely good points should be possessed by the female. The leaßt defect in the female, from accident or inherent weakness, ahould be the instant signal for her removal from the herd. The aim of the breeder is that the stock shall possess fine symmetry— shape, as it ia commonly called— robust constitution, a disposition to attain early maturity, which^ insures good quality of flesh, and, in milch cows, deep milking qualities. Selection of a Bull —He should be of moderate size, coupled with as much fiaeness of bone and limb as is consistent with vigour and energy, together with fulness of carcass and ripeness of points. In addition to these, let him be of as pure blood and of as long ancestry as possible, and for the dairy, of the best milk or butter stock,— Town and Country Journal.