“ TOO WELL CARED FOR ”

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3938, 11 August 1937, Page 11

“ TOO WELL CARED FOR ”

HER MAJESTY THE COW. Recently I heard that a dairy-farm-ing friend of mine had lost four good cows at calving time owing to their being too fat (writes a southern authority). Upon making inquiries from the man concerned I found that this was largely so, but there were certain features of interest in the case. The herd was under the care of an excellent share-milker who took great pains with his charges. About one month prior to the cows coming in he would draft out the animals and put them on to splendid feed. The four cows lost died as a result of catching a chill from cold winds following calving, the chill leading to what is thought to have been pneumonia. They were in “ grand ” condition at calving—really rather too fat. It is now thought that this complication resulted from two causes, related ones—over-condition, resulting in greater strain and feverishness at calving, and also that the cows had had too little exercise owing to feed being so abundant. In future it is intended to give the cows due to calve only a fortnight on such feed instead of four or five weeks. As the unfortunate owner remarked, his cows were lost by being “ too well cared for.”