The Cows
- 12. Have the herd examined at least twice a year by a skilled veterinarian.
- 13. Promptly remove from the herd any animal suspected of being in bad health, and reject her milk. Never add an animal to the herd until it is ascertained to be free from disease, especially tuberculosis.
- 14. Do not move cows faster than a comfortable walk while on the way to the place of milking or feeding.
- 15. Never allow the cows to be excited by hard driving, abuse, loud talking or unnecessary disturbance; do not expose them to cold or storms.
- 16. Do not change the feed suddenly.
- 17. Feed liberally, and use only fresh, palatable feed-stuffs; in no case should decomposed or mouldy material be used.
- 18. Provide water in abundance, easy of access, and always pure; fresh, but not too cold.
- 19. Salt should always be accessible to the cows.
- 20. Do not allow any strong-flavoured food, like garlic, cabbages and turnips, to be eaten, except immediately after milking.
- 21. Clean the entire skin of the cow daily. If hair in the region of the udder is not easily kept clean, it should be clipped.
- 22. Do not use the milk within twenty days before calving, nor for three to five days afterwards.
Milking
- 23. The milker should be clean in all respects; he should not use tobacco while milking; he should wash and dry his hands just before milking.
- 24. The milker should wear a clean outer garment, used only when milking and kept in a clean place at other times.
- 25. Brush the udder and surrounding parts just before milking and wipe them with a clean damp cloth or sponge.
- 26. Milk quietly, quickly, cleanly and thoroughly. Cows do not like unnecessary noise or delay. Commence milking at exactly the same hour every morning and evening, and milk the cows in the same order.
- 27. Throw away (but not on the floor—better in the gutter) the first two or three streams from each teat; this milk is very watery and of little value, but it may injure the rest.
- 28. If in any milking a part of the milk is bloody or stringy or unnatural in appearance, the whole should be rejected.
- 29. Milk with dry hands; never let the hands come in contact with the milk.
- 30. Do not allow dogs, cats or loafers to be around at milking time.
- 31. If any accident occurs by which a pail, full or partly full, of milk becomes dirty, do not try to remedy this by straining, but reject all this milk and rinse the pail.
- 32. Weigh and record the milk given by each cow, and take a sample morning and night, at least once a week, for testing by the fat test.
Care of Milk
- 33. Remove the milk of every cow at once from the cow-house to a clean dry room, where the air is pure and sweet. Do not allow cans to remain in the cow-house while they are being filled with milk.
- 34. Strain the milk through a metal gauze and a flannel cloth or layer of cotton as soon as it is drawn.
- 35. Cool the milk as soon as strained—to 45° F. if the milk is for shipment, or to 60° if for home use or delivery to a factory.
- 36. Never close a can containing warm milk.
- 37. If the cover is left off the can, a piece of cloth or mosquito netting should be used to keep out insects.
- 38. If milk is stored, it should be kept in tanks of fresh cold water (renewed as often as the temperature increases to any material extent), in a clean, dry, cold room. Unless it is desired to remove cream, it should be stirred with a tin stirrer often enough to prevent the forming of a thick cream layer.
- 39. Keep the night milk under shelter so that rain cannot get into the cans. In warm weather keep it in a tank of fresh cold water.
- 40. Never mix fresh warm milk with that which has been cooled.
- 41. Do not allow the milk to freeze.
- 42. In no circumstances should anything be added to milk to prevent its souring. Cleanliness and cold are the only preventives needed.
- 43. All milk should be in good condition when delivered at a creamery or a cheesery. This may make it necessary to deliver twice a day during the hottest weather.
- 44. When cans are hauled far they should be full, and carried in a spring waggon.
- 45. In hot weather cover the cans, when moved in a waggon, with a clean wet blanket or canvas.
The Utensils
- 46. Milk utensils for farm use should be made of metal and have all joints smoothly soldered. Never allow them to become rusty or rough inside.
- 47. Do not haul waste products back to the farm in the cans used for delivering milk. When this is unavoidable, insist that the skim milk or whey tank be kept clean.
- 48. Cans used for the return of skim milk or whey should be emptied, scalded and cleaned as soon as they arrive at the farm.
- 49. Clean all dairy utensils by first thoroughly rinsing them in warm water; next clean inside and out with a brush and hot water in which a cleaning material is dissolved; then rinse and, lastly, sterilize by boiling water or steam. Use pure water only.
- 50. After cleaning, keep utensils inverted in pure air, and sun if possible, until wanted for use.
Food and Milk Production
In their comprehensive paper relating to the feeding of animals published in 1895, Lawes and Gilbert discussed amongst other questions that of milk production, and directed attention to the great difference in the demands made on the food—on the one hand for the production of meat (that is, of animal increase), and on the other for the production of milk. Not only, however, do cows of different breeds yield different quantities of milk, and milk of characteristically different composition, but individual animals of the same breed have very different milk-yielding capacity; and whatever the capacity of a cow may be, she has a maximum yield at one period of her lactation, which is followed by a gradual decline. Hence, in comparing the amounts of constituents stored up in the fattening increase of an ox with the amounts of the same constituents removed in the milk of a cow, it is necessary to assume a wide range of difference in the yield of milk. Accordingly, Table V. shows the amounts of nitrogenous substance, of fat, of non-nitrogenous substance not fat, of mineral matter, and of total solid matter, carried off in the weekly yield of milk of a cow, on the alternative assumptions of a production of 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 or 20 quarts per head per day. For comparison, there are given at the foot of the table the amounts of nitrogenous substance, of fat, of mineral matter, and of total solid matter, in the weekly increase in live-weight of a fattening ox of an average weight of 1000 ℔—on the assumption of a weekly increase, first, of 10 ℔, and, secondly, of 15 ℔. The estimates of the amounts of constituents in the milk are based on the assumption that it will contain 12.5% of total solids—consisting of 3.65 albuminoids, 3.50 butter-fat, 4.60 sugar and 0.75 of mineral matter. The estimates of the constituents in the fattening increase of oxen are founded on determinations made at Rothamsted.
Milk, and in the Fattening Increase of Oxen.
| [1 Gallon = 10.33 ℔] | Nitrogenous Substance. |
Fat. | Non- Nitrogenous Substance not Fat (Sugar). |
Mineral Matter. |
Total Solid Matter. |
| In Milk per Week. | |||||
| If:— | ℔ | ℔ | ℔ | ℔ | ℔ |
| 4 quarts per head per day | 2.64 | 2.53 | 3.33 | 0.54 | 9.04 |
| 6 ” ” ” | 3.96 | 3.80 | 4.99 | 0.81 | 13.56 |
| 8 ” ” ” | 5.28 | 5.06 | 6.66 | 1.08 | 18.08 |
| 10 ” ” ” | 6.60 | 6.33 | 8.32 | 1.35 | 22.60 |
| 12 ” ” ” | 7.92 | 7.59 | 9.99 | 1.62 | 27.12 |
| 14 ” ” ” | 9.24 | 8.86 | 11.65 | 1.89 | 31.64 |
| 16 ” ” ” | 10.56 | 10.12 | 13.32 | 2.16 | 36.16 |
| 18 ” ” ” | 11.88 | 11.39 | 14.98 | 2.43 | 40.68 |
| 20 ” ” ” | 13.20 | 12.65 | 16.65 | 2.70 | 45.20 |
| In Increase in Live-Weight per Week.—Oxen. | |||||
| If 10 ℔ increase | 0.75 | 6.35 | .. | 0.15 | 7.25 |
| If 15 ℔ increase | 1.13 | 9.53 | .. | 0.22 | 10.88 |
With regard to the very wide range of yield of milk per head per day which the figures in the following table assume, it may be remarked that it is by no means impossible that the same animal might yield the largest amount, namely, 20 quarts, or 5 gallons, per day near the beginning, and only 4 quarts, or
