THE DAIRY.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 25, Issue 39, 22 May 1914, Page 7

THE DAIRY.

DO MILK VEINS INDICATE DAIRY CAPACITY ?

Dr. King, of Maine, writes very interestingly on “Do Milk Veins Indicate Dairy Capacity ?” He' quotes'' from a station bulletin :—“The size of a cow’s milk veins and milk wells indicate the amount of blood that flows through the udder. Milk is made from blood. The more , blood that flows through the udder the more milk.” Dr. King, in large milk veins and wells sees a varicose condition. He compares the condition to that of the dilated veins in the human body—varicose veins in the leg, perhaps—where the blood runs uphill. “If in the cow,” he says, “these large milk veins do not produce impared development and nutrition of udder and lowered milk production, it is an exception to medical experience.” I believe it must be an exception, for many great cows have large milk veins.

Dr. King calls this a loose statement :—“The more blood that flows through the udder the more milk.” Mr. Editor, this sentence should be burned into the brain of every dairyman :—“Milk is made from blood, the more blood the more milk.” Dr. King says that these milk veins are rendered large and tortuous and vari cose the gravid uterus pressing upon them. This thought never occurred to me and thousands of others, but I believe it true that before calving the enlarged womb might cause enlargement of those veins. - But I insist that this whole matter of pregnancy and calf-rearing and lactation is physiological and not pathological, and if those milk veius arc enlarged by uterine pressure it is part of the great plan to fit that cow to give an abundance of milk. The way I view it, those big veins are a necessity. They ought to be varicose.

A quarter century ago a great dairy editor went out over Wisconsin to the hundreds of two-day farm institutes and enthused farmers everywhere ; he went with a knowledge of better dairying. He spoke on the nervous temperament of cows, but he did not teach enough regarding the influence of the sympathetic nerve in milk-production. Neither does Dr. King have a word to say regarding the vaso motor nerves.

I sat down to milk my six cows this evening. A simple operation, you know, but how many people know the modus operand! in the old cow 1 On her part, elaborating milk is a beautiful process. I grasp the teats and a telegram is sent up from the udder to her brain. What next ? In her arteries carrying blood 1o her udders are little masses of nerve mat ter with little threads running into and between the coats of those arteries. These sympathetic nerve ganglia are connected by nerve fibres with other ganglia in other organs all over the body. When that message reaches her brain a despatch is sent along the sympathetic nerve saying “enlarge, dilate mammary arteries.” These arteries enlarge, and while I am milking I suppose every pound of blood in that cow’s body passes ‘through her udder in less than eight minutes. Now, this is the time when big milk veins are needed. These are horizontal veins and unlike those in the leg of a human being. If these veins were not large and varicose pt milking time the flow of blood from the arteries. would be Impeded, anid less milk be obtained.

What is my duty when milking 1 To “milk quickly, quietly, and cleanly.” Why quickly? Because a stream of blood is running through those milk cells and milk is being elaborated, and I want to catch it as it homes into the udder. Why milk quietly ? Very few men can talk while milking without stopping their work and interrupting this whole physiological process. I think these milk veins and wells have a sort of intermittent use—very necessary at milking time and less so at other times. I am glad Dr. King has written, and hope he will write again. The unthinking farmer should be told that milk is made from blood, and that to he of profit to him his cows should be fed those balanced food? that make rich blood. An anaemic cow gives little or no milk ; a plethoric one whose arteries and veins are full to overflowing of rich blood is the one that it pays to milk.— 0. V. Porter, in “Hoard’s Dairyman.'