DAIRY RESEARCH.

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3180, 21 May 1932, Page 3

DAIRY RESEARCH.

I NECESSITY FOR PROPER f NUTRITION. I The necessity for going back to the thoroughly regular balanced ration, thus ensuring proper nutrition, is emphasised in the following article, which has been suggested following a careful reading of the Empire Marketing Board's recent report upon " Dairy Research." It is well established in human nutrition that, unless the human being receives not only adequate quantities of food, but also proper qualities, malnutrition follows. Maltnutrition, manifests itself in various forms, 1 tuberculosis, anemia, goitre, etc., and medical science has definitely arrived at the conclusion that such diseases are the product of lack of certain essential food elements in the diet of the subject affected. It is claimed by science that the lack of potassium in the food of human being tends to the production of tuberculosis; that the lack of iron produces anemia; and that iodine being absent from food results in goitre. As animal nutrition follows the same general laws, it is only a very easy and logical step to arrive at the conclusion that similar disease in milch cows are the product of similar conditions, i.e., lack of certain essential chemical elements in the fodder and pastures supplied to the herd.

A SHORT CUT. To the writers way of thinking all the scientific research work now being undertaken to ascertain the causes of disease in cows can be definitely reached by a short cut, meaning going back directly to the thoroughly regular balanced ration. This should contain all the chemical elements of which the beast's body is comprised, and such chemical food elements should be in a state of organic life, which would enable the beast so fed to thoroughly assimilate and bring to fruition such chemicals in the shape of built-up tissues and replenished nerve force. In studying this subject the ascertained facts of science should not be lost sight of. First and most important it must be remembered that food elements cannot be assimilated unless in a strictly natural form. They should be fully supplied with the vitaminic forces put into the herbs and the grain by the synthetic action of the sun. After reading many authorities on the subject of the nutrition and handling of milch cows, the second conclusion to be gathered is that it is impossible to induce cows to produce in the form of milk—a highly complex compound—unless the animal is first furnished with all the necessary elements from which to manufacture it. The natural function of the cow when called upon will give to the dairyman milk, or something that looks like milk.

WHAT IS MILK?

This milk varies in chemical constituents to a marked degree, and in the case of the diminution of any of the usual elements of milk it can be definitely concluded that the organism of the cow has used up all the available food material naturally designed to produce that particular element in milk. It is here that danger creeps in. In the effort of the chemical laboratory of the cow to supply the required quantity of milk upon a deficient ration, it will inevitably call upon its own blood, tissue, bone and nerve to furnish the deficiency. If the cow has been called upon to perform this function over an extended period, it will result in breaking down its constitution, and sooner or later some marked disease, such as tuberculosis, will develop. From this brief survey of the nutrition of the dairy cow it will strike the reader that if the milk supplied for human consumption comes from an insufficiently nourished animal that milk must in its turn be defective as a human food. Denatured food, such as artificially produced meals, fodders, etc., are open to question upon the ability of the cows to find nutrition that can be assimilated therein, for the reason that the absolutely indispensable vitaminic contents have, in most cases, been destroyed by the heat processes through which they have been passed. VALUE OF RAW MILK. It has been proven long ago, beyond any shadow of doubt, that milk which has been subjected to heat treat- , ment loses just tha't vital quality which governs the whole, or nearly ' the whole, nutritional value of milk as a food. Calves fed upon fresh '. warm milk, preferably straight from the cow, always thrive more heartily than do those fed on skim milk, plus some artificial food product. Even . the hides of calves that have been . properly brought up on the milk of ' their dams show the remarkable efficiency of correct nutrition. Such . can be picked easily when taken off j the animal after slaughter. The 1 hides of these calves have a natural suppleness and are waterproof, where- \ as the hides of calves fed on skim milk ' are brittle and porous. Fortunately ] the hides of children who die are not J tanned, or perhaps it would be found ] that many of their skins would be i brittle, too, if fed upon denatured or 1 artificial foods. It may be concluded, then, that the great masses of J people in the cities and towns, in or- ( der to rear a healthy and happy gen- « eration of youngsters, should see that the milk food they use is of unim- -j peachable quality. The farmers who ] supply that milk should see also that 1 their herds are fit to produce such ) milk, and any deficiency in nutrition ' should be rectified. I c