Dairy Farming of the Future.

Otago Witness, Issue 1813, 20 August 1886, Page 7

Dairy Farming of the Future.

An address on this subject has been lately given before the West Firle (Sussex) Farmers' Club, by Professor James Long, from which we give some extracts: I believo dairy fanning, ■which is yet in its infancy in England, will in the future be intimately associated with British agriculture, and I conclude that its success depends upon — (1) a more thorough knowledge of dairy cattle, and their capacity as milk and butter producera ; (2) feeding for- a maximum butter yield with a special reference to the economically arranged ration ; (3) a greater knowledge of cream raising ; (4) a greater perfection in- butler making and preserving; and (5; the profitable utilisation of slriin milk. There ara three leading systems of dairying — the sale of milk, the manufacture of cheese, and the manufacture of butter No butter dairy with twenty or more cows should be without the centrifugal separator, whether steam is employed or not. In one instance, at the Sudbury Dairy, something occurred to prevent the milk being separated by the machines in the ordinary way. On a certain day, 19,3251b of milk were skimmed by hand, producing 5001b of butter, or lib to over 15 quarts of milk. On the very next day, 19,6081b of milk were passed through the machines} and produced 6491b of butter, or lib to 12 quarts of milk. Here was a saving of nearly 1491b, which is one of such magnitude that it needs no further comment. Another instance is that referring to the dairy of Col. Curtis Hayward, in Gloucestershire, which I have recently visited. Here the cattle kept are Shorthorns and Jerseys, the former very largely predominating, and Col. Curtis Hay ward's average for the whole of his herd — about fifty in number — for some three months previous to my visit was lib to about 201b of milk, and this was solely by the assistance of the separator. This return is so extraordinary that if it can be obtained or even approached by any ordinary butter making farmer he would undoubtedly find, at the end of his first year, that he had made a return of at least 25 per cent more than usual I have already referred to the statement made by French authorities that one of the causes of success of ' Norman dairying has been the substitution of grass and green crops for cereals. This appears to me to be too important a subject; to ignore, especially now that arable farming is so commonly condemned as unprofitable. I believe that on suitable land heavy forage crops, including the clovers, rye-grass, timothy, and cocksfoot, trifolium, sainfoin, and lucerne, most of which varieties may be mixed in certain proportions with advantage, would be found to pay as food infinitely bettor than meadow grass, more particularly if they be laid down for two, three, or even four years. They may be alternate with grain crops and roots in the ordinary rotation. Again, double or "catch" cropping may frequently be pursued by means of tares, maize, green rye, or oats and trifolium, some of these being followed, after laying the winter, by summer crops. The advantage of a lea when well cultivated are that it provides a much greater yield of food than grass, that, it Haves an immense amount of labour, and is advantageous to the future grain crop. These forage crops are also valuable for silage, and I have assumed that where ten tons can bo taken from a first cropper acre it will, roughly speaking, make eight tons of silage of the Value o£ £12. Forage crops, whether for soiling or silago, can, I believe, be made to keep a cow upon an acre and a-half of land, instead of upon three acres. It will merely form a basis for further calculation if I suggest that 1001b of grass or green forage will suffice to feed a cow weighing 10001b for a day. If so, it follows that upon an acre and a-half, with the aftermath, she could be kept for a year by combined soiling and silage, following the scythe at least once yearly with liquid manure. Where double cropping is pursued, although, more expensive, a much larger proportion of food would be yielded. Tn either case I would suggest, both'ssan additional food for the cows and as a chock upon the loosening properties of so much green food, and also for the benefit of the manure, that undo*

this system of feeding, cotton cake should always ha given. It ought to bo thoroughly understood Ifchat to feed a cow with economy and to the best advantage the food shouH be properly mixed. A cow in milk requires to every pai-t of nitrogen —that is, the flesh-forming constituent of food, »nd the one whichis also responsible for the casein in the milk — four and a half to five parts of carbon. For a cow weighing 10001b 241b of dry food daily are considered sufficient, and this Should contain 2Mb of digestible nitrogen and I2£lb of digestible carbon ; for it must not be forgotten that the dry food consumed by the stock, t.c, the food they eat minus the water it contains, is not all available for Nutritious purposes. Bearing this fact in mind, I suggest that food should be cooked or steamed, when a larger portion of the constituents are rendered ■digestible. In the same way, in cold weather, water should be warmed. The system of cooking the food and heating the water saves a portion of the ration allowed, this portion being used by the animal in the form of fuel to raise bothfood and water when given cold to the normal temperature of the body. There is no food which is wasted to a greater extent than straw. Oat straw contains H per cent of digestible nitrogen and 40 per cent of carbon, the proportion in hay being 5§ and 42 p«c cent respectively ; but in how many cases •re these proportions rendered available ? I believe seldom or never, although by cooking they evidently might be. Straw is a food, and a good food, and itseemstomethatinthefutureweshall have to look to its value in this respect much more than we do at present, when large quantities in all parts of the country are thrown down into the stock-yard to be trodden into manure. Upon a dairy farm all dry foods should be cooked, as is common in Scotland. The farmer should have a boiler equal to steaming, to grinding, chaffing, pulping, and finally to working' the separator, and. he would never regret the outlay. I believe, and it is an opinion derived from practice, that with high and short standings, cows require no litter at all. Their manure should be preserved under cover, and receptacles provided for the liquid. In this way there would be a considerable saving in straw, which is worth more as a food than as a manure. Let me conclude by making some complaints, all of which are, I believe, justified by the present state of dairy farming: — (1) That we take three acres upon which to keep a dairy cow ; (2) that ■we feed to waste for want of accurate knowledge of the best methods of making and preparing foods; (3) we cannot absolutely trust our men to carry out in its entirety a careful system of feeding and management — they frequently smoke in the cowhouse, and invariably dip their fingers in the milk ; (4) wo do not fully understand the management of milk, the science of making and preserving butter and cheese, and other edibles prepared from milk; (5) many of our dairies average not more than 500 gal of milk in a year, although we have cattle in the country able to yield lOOOgal ; (6)* we are seldom able to obtain much more than 1501b butter in a year, although we have cows in England which yield 3001b ; (7) we consider 4cwt of cheese (4801b) a good average, although we have cows which will produce 10001b; (8) we have yet to discover (among Other things) why two animals, fed upon the same ration, and kept under similar circumstances, differ in their yields of milk, and to ascertain whether some cows are mere manure makers or pickpockets.