FARM TOPICS.

Colonist, Volume LIV, Issue 13384, 6 April 1912, Page 8

FARM TOPICS.

Tho revenue of whc«y- butter is, says tho "Hawera Star" going to be a big factor in tho dairy industry in the very near future. Already this year on<? or two factories will very nearly pay working expenses from this by-product alono —hitherto absolutely wasted— and if, in addition to tin's they succeed in manufacturing sugar of milk also, tho value of milk per cow should be very considerably increased. Tho. natural sequence of this will be still further increases in the land value, smaller holdings, and moro intense farming. Tiie industry must then become more ■sdcwitifio and greater attention paid to cropping. These were tho observations of tho party which accompanied the Uruguayan embassy around the Waimate Plains and thorough the dairy factories.

Some hints on feeding cows arc given in the bulletin issued by the Wisconsin Experiment Station. Put briefly, it is to tho. effect that each cow should receive- as much roughage as she will eat up clean, and a portion of this should preferably be of tho succulent nature, like grasses, soiled crops, or roots. As regards concentrated foods, it has been found a good working rule to feed as many pounds of grain feeds per day to each cow as she produces pounds of but-ter-fat a week, or one-fourth to onethird- as much grain as she gives pounds of milk daily , the amount depending on the percentage of butterfat, in the milk. In tho case of cows producing milk with a low percentage of fat, one-fourth would be required. Care should always be taken to aviod an increase in body weight above the i;ormal for each cow, since the milk secretion, as a general rule; is lik(,ly to suffer when cows commence to utilise their feed for the ' formation of body fat.