MORNING AND EVENING MILK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2501, 19 February 1902, Page 7

MORNING AND EVENING MILK.

The published official figures of the results of the milking trials at the latest London dairy show bring out in high relief some very important facts in respect to the widely-varying quality of morning and evening milk. At these annual milking tests under the auspices of the British Dairy Farmers' Association quality of milk counts for the same number of points on quantity. and the cows entered for these competitions, therefore, are all animals carefully selected for their milking properties alike in respect of quality as well as quantity. The cows are milked under the supervision of the judges, and apart from the careful inspection of the judges, the competitors ■would, of course, take very good care that the competing animals would be milked thoroughly ckan at each milking, seeing that tke quality of the milk counted for the same number of points as the quantity. In the case of these competitions, therefore, there cannot possibly be any shadow of a , ground for suspicion that the " strip--pings," or " afterings," were left in the udder with the view of being surreptitiously used for a different purpose. It is most important to keep these facts fully in view in order to arrive at a correct appreciation of the weults of the milking trials at the London dairy show. From the official rej)ort of these trials we note the following lacts : — _

Ths first prize shoi thorn cow — Loi d Kothschild's Viscountess Jersey VII — gave a total yield of 66.91b milk at the two morning milking?, and her morning milk showed an average of 2.74 per cent, of but-ter-fat. The same cow gave a totnl yield nf 55.71b at the two evening milkings. and the evening milk showed an average of 3.28 per cent, of butter-fat. The second prize shorthorn cow gave- a total yield of 47.61b at the two morning milkingc, and *lier morning milk showed an average of 2.94 per cent of butter-fat. The same cow g.we a total yield of 40.41b milk at. the Iwo evening milkings, and her evening milk showed an average of 3.29 per cent, of but-ter-fat. The first {jrize red poll — Lord Rothschild's Ladylike II — gave a total yield of 55.71b milk at the two morning milkings, and hei morning milk showed an average of only 2.21 per c^nt. of butter-fat. The same cow a total yMd of 58.911) milk at tli 1 two cvc-iiiiij m. lking' , :i:ul her

evening milk showed an jvtrigc of 5.08 per cent, butter-fat. The firs. l prize Kerry gave a total yield of 45.91b milk at the two morning milkings, and her morning milk showed an average of 2.91 per cent, of but-

The pame cow gave a total yield

of 39.91b at the two evening milkings, and ■^ lier evening milk showed an average of 3.11 per cent, of butter-fat. The first prize winner in the class for " cows not eligible to compete in any of the foregoing classes"' — that is to say, in the classes for distinct breeds — gave a total yield of 55.51b milk at the two morning milkings, and her morning milk showed an average of 2.63 per cent, butter-fat. The same cow gave a £otal yield of 49.81b milk at the two evening milkings, and her evening milk showed an average of 3.82 per cent of butter-fat. The North British Agriculturist, in a leading article, urges the importance of such facts as these upon the attention of dairyfarnm's. Of all the cows specially selected for this competition on account of their milking properties, alike in regaid to quantity and quality of milk, there we're five of "the most successful competitors in the milking trials whose morning milk was considerably under the new standard of 3 pei cent., though their afternoon milk was in every case over than standard. One of them — namely, the first prize milk cow in the red-polled section, showed ?.i. average of only 2.21 per cent, of butter-fat in her morning milk. And y<rc there are many *' expert witnesses ' who would swear in a court of justice that milk showing such a • 'low percentage of butter-fat- must be either adulterated by the abstraction of cream or by being mixed 'with water or separated milk, or otherwise sophisticated by the stoppings having been withheld. 33ut the results of the London dairy chow "milking trials show clearly enough that euch milk may be drawn in the morning from a cow that is fit to win against all competitors of the same breed in a-com-petition in which quality counts for ps much as quantity. Equally notable, too. is Dug. cue of the second jklUc J££axi vrbose

morning, milk showed an average of only 2:63, per cent, of butter -fat, while her evening milk showed .an average of 3.82 per .cent, of butter-fat. Speaking at an agricultural conference in Scotland, the Minister for Agriculture, in reference to the newlyauthorised milk standard, said : — " I ivas convinced, on the whole, from what I could gather " (from the witnesses examined by the Royal Commissioners) " that there was, perhaps, too great a tendency to &et up an ideal standard, and when I look at the differences at different seasons of the year in the quality of the milk, wh?n I consider also the great difference between the morning and evening milk, and when I realise the absolute necessity of protecting the poorer man who has only got, perhaps, one or two cows, I thought that it was only right that, at any rate for the present," we should fix a standard which would be, on the whole, a fair -standard. . . . Two things have got to be remembered in connection with that standard. In the first placs that, although the standard is. fixed at 3 per cent., of course no more in the future than in the past will any adulteration be allowed. You will not be allowed to put skim milk into sweet milk to bring it down to the standard. On the other hand, if the natural product of the cow can be shown to be helow 3 per cent., then no prosecution will follow."