HARD-MILKING COWS

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1785, 22 July 1926, Page 7

HARD-MILKING COWS

All dairymen recognise that some cows are much harder to milk than others, and as a rule the young folk leave these for father or mother to milk. No one can blame them for picking the easy and the quiet cows. It is a tiresome task to milk some cows. Hard milking is generally caused by a strong sphincter muscle which closes the teat opening tighter than it should be. This condition may be 'remedied by proper treatment. Teat plugs made of hard rubber are placed in the teat duct and a tape tied around the teat through the eyehole of the plug. These plugs are made specially for the purpose, and are placed in the teat duct between milkings. If this is continued for some time the muscles* seem to relax and the opening remains larger. There are instruments which veterinarians use to operate on teats to enlarge the opening and relieve the tension. It is necessary before using a milk tube or teat plug they should be thoroughly disinfected. If this is not clone there is clanger of germs gaining, access to the udder andi causing inflammation which may ruin the udder. Boiling the tube or plug and then dipping in a 5 per .cent, solution of carbolic acid or creoline and inserting While wet with the solution is recommended.

Sometimes there is difficulty in drawing the milk owing to a lump forming in the milk duct or to a scab forming on the end of the teat. The former may be remedied by an operation, ancl the latter bp application of healing ointment. But the quarter may be permanently ruined, before the cause of the trouble is removed., by all the milk not being drawn. There are some milkers who carelessly leave a quantity of milk in the udder, and the first thing they know it has curdled, causing inflammation, thus causing more trouble. The milk should all be drawn from a sore teat even if a milk syphon or tube is used. A little milk left each time will either dry the quarter or cause serious complications. Defective udders, from one cause or another, are all too common.