MAXIMUM YIELDS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 18761, 27 December 1930, Page 10

MAXIMUM YIELDS

RAPID AND THOROUGH MILKING. The common belief that cows give more milk when they are milked rapidly than when the operation is done slowly is a questionable one. However, it is certain that they do not give less, so that, assuming the work is done thoroughly, quick milking has at least the obvious advantage of saving time. But the most important point is that the cows should be milked thoroughly, as the richest milk is that which is last drawn. Tests w T hich have been made show that in milk from a completed milking, which averaged 4 per cent, fat, the percentage in the strippings amounted to from 8 to 10 per cent. Insufficient stripping means a loss of the richest portion of the milk, a result which may bring the retailer within the reach of the law, while it also tends to the drying off of the cow. Thoroughness and rapidity in doing anything seldom go together, and it will be agreed that it is much more important to have a man or woman who is a thorough milker than one who is exceptionally rapid at the job. Reasonable speed is desirable, but rapid milking is not as necessary as many seem to imagine. The ow T ner of a large dairy herd recently expressed the belief that when a cow becomes accustomed to a milker the speed of milking within reasonable limits, has little effect on her production. To test the matter he had milked four or five cows for a time at a certain rate, and later he took twice the time to milk each cow. At first the animals declined in production quite perceptibly, but after two or three days they yielded as much as W’hen milked at the more rapid rate, which suggests that the cows tend to adjust themselves to the operator’s demands. There is no question that both rapid and slow milkers have been successful in securing a large production of milk and high records from individual animals. An experienced cowman will usually milk about seven cows (averaging two gallons) an hour without much diffi- ! culty, and a really first-rate milker ! will manage nine per hour. The time required to milk any cow will vary with the yield and the ease with whifch the cow can be milked. Cows giving a large yield, and which let their milk down | easily might be milked at the rate of | 3-41 b. per minute (one gallon in about | three minutes), but the average rate of ; milking is probably about half that | quantity. In fact, anything above 10 gallons an hour may be considered rapid milking.

Practical dairymen know that there are one or two other matters to which attention must be given if maximum yields are to be secured. Thus it is very desirable that heifers should be gently and patiently treated and carefully milked throughout their first lactation. Massaging the quarters of the udder, too, is sometimes recommended as a means of stimulating an increased output.