Dairy cow

“ If farmers wish to increase their milk production and find their way clear to devote more time to their cattle, this discussion may be of some assistance.
Dairy cows have certain definite requirements. One of the most important of these is that they go through no periods in which they do not have all they want to eat of at least good grass or good hay or roughage. If the grass begins to get a little short in the summer, we must not neglect to feed. Another important requirement of the dairy cow is that she be not exposed to hardships such as cold winds and rains. ”

“ Perfection in a cow, consists in converting all she eats into milk while yielding it, and when dry, in turning all she consumes into valuable meat.
Management of Dairy Cows.
A cow may have her first calf when between two and three years of age, according to her size and development. After calving, she should be stinted in her food for two or three days, and not fed freely for a week. Avoid fat in a breeding cow. Too high feeding is the cause of milk-fever, caked bag, garget, and a host of evils; and very poor feed is almost equally objectionable. ”

“ Fresh brewer's grains constitute one of the best feeds for the dairy cow. She is fond of them and they influence most favorably the flow of milk. Fed while fresh in reasonable quantities, supplemented by bright hay or corn fodder for dry feed, the grains being kept in tight feed-boxes which can be kept clean, and with other conditions favorable to the healthfulness of the cow, no valid objection can be raised against this form of feed. ”

“ Pure-bred herds of some of these different breeds are owned in nearly all parts of the country, and half-breeds or higher grades are found wherever cows are kept for dairy purposes. The quality and production of the average dairy cow in America are thus being steadily advanced.
A TYPICAL DAIRY COW—AYRSHIRE.
The development of dairying in the United States during the closing decades of the nineteenth century has been uninterrupted, and marked by events of the greatest consequence in the entire history. The importance of two inventions during this period cannot be overestimated. ”

“ By ordinary treatment the quantity of butter during winter is markedly inferior. The common materials for dairy cows in winter are straw with turnips or mangel, hay alone, or hay with mangel. If we examine these materials, we find them deficient in oil, or in starch, sugar, etc. If a cow consume two stones or twenty-eight pounds of hay a day, which is probably more than she can be induced to eat on an average, it will be equal in dry material to more than one hundred pounds of [389] young grass, which will also satisfy a cow. ”

“ The color of the cow is the result of a condition. The red cow has been better suited to a farmer’s conditions and requirements. Dairy cattle can not rough it like beef or dual-purpose cattle. Where the custom is to stable feed and give good care to cattle, dairy breeds naturally take the lead. Where the dairy business is a side issue, and besides giving milk a cow is expected to face cold winds and to withstand periods of semi-starvation, the dairy type is not in it. ”

“ The red farmer’s cow is often called the dual-purpose animal. She is about half way between the beef and the dairy. She protects herself well but not to the limit as does the Hereford. She produces milk well but not nearly so well as do the highly-bred and highly-developed strictly dairy types. Not one of these three types of cows will do to substitute for any other. Each has a place to fill and each is the best animal in her place. ”

“ The dairy cow should be deep and broad through the flank—deeper and broader than through the shoulders—but must have a comparatively large chest, giving capacity of lungs and stomach, for she must have good digestive powers and inhale plenty of fresh air. Her hips [19] should be broad, setting her thighs well apart, and her thighs should be rather thin. This gives space for a large udder, which is indispensable, for it is unreasonable to expect a large flow of milk from an udder of small capacity. The udder should be soft and fleshless when empty, and extend high up in the rear. ”

“ These figures explain why dairy cows and not steers are kept on the valuable lands. When the cheap lands disappear, and rough food commands higher values, the beef cow will be raised as a luxury, and cattle will make their contribution to the human race largely in the form of milk, butter, and cheese. In the future more and more will the farmers of all countries turn to the dairy cows. ”

“ The cow is always more injured than the calf is benefited, by that mode of feeding. She becomes so fond of the calf that she does not, for a long time after, yield her milk freely to the dairy-maid. The calf does not when young draw off the milk completely, and when it is taken off by the hand the cow withholds part of her milk; and, whenever a cow’s udder is not completely emptied every time she is milked, the lactic secretion is thereby diminished. ”

“ In the neighborhood of towns where the dairy produce is disposed of in new milk, and where the aim of dairymen is to produce the greatest quantity, too frequently with but little regard to quality, it is their common practice to purchase incalving cows. They pay great attention to the condition of the cow; they will tell you, by the high comparative price they pay for animals well stored with flesh and fat, that condition is as valuable for them as it is for the butcher ”

“ Their milk is influenced like that of other cows, though to less extent, by the quality and quantity of food; so that in winter, unless the animal is properly attended to, the yield will decrease somewhat, but will rise again as good feed returns. This uniformity for the milk-dairy is of immense advantage. Besides, the cow, when old, and inclined to dry up, takes on fat [216] with greater rapidity, and produces a juicy and tender beef, superior, at the same age, to that of the ox. The operation of spaying is simple, and may be performed by any veterinary surgeon, without much risk of injury. ”

“ These different objects should, therefore, be kept in view, in the selection of cows; for animals which would be most profitable for the milk-dairy might be very unprofitable in the butter-dairy—a fact of almost daily experience. The productiveness of the cow does not depend on her breed so much as upon her food and management, her temperament and health, and the activity and energy of the organs of digestion and secretion. ”

“ With such treatment, the cow loses in condition during the process of milking, and when no longer profitable is sold to purchasers in farming districts where food is cheaper, to be fattened or otherwise replenished for the use of the dairy keeper. We thus find a disposition in the cow to apply the aliment of her food to her milk, rather than to lay on flesh or fat; for not only are the elements of her food diverted to this purpose, but, to all appearance, her accumulated stores of flesh and fat are drawn upon, and converted into components of milk, cheese, or butter. ”

“ As examples of beef-cows look at the Shorthorns or the Herefords or the Polled Angus at the next State Fair you visit and notice the square, deep, smooth body with muscles and fat strongly developed in contrast to the loosely built, bony milk-cow with its tendency to turn all its food into milk at the expense of the body. There are, however, also among the Shorthorns, strains of good milkers, but as a rule these beef-breeds are not selected for the dairy farm, and “dual purpose” cows are not usually profitable. ”

“ The calf is left to suck once or twice, which it will do as soon as it is able to stand. It should, in all cases, be permitted to have the first milk that comes from the cow, which is of a turbid, yellowish color, unfit for any of the purposes of the dairy, but somewhat purgative or medicinal, and admirably and wisely designed by nature to free the bowels and intestines of the new-born animal from the mucous, excrementitious matter always existing in them after birth. ”

“ The cow’s memory is far greater than many suppose; and the loss and injury sustained by removing the calf after it has been allowed to suck her for a longer or shorter period is never known exactly, because it is not usually known how much milk the calf takes; but it is, without doubt, very considerable. If the udder is all right, there seems to be no good reason for leaving the calf with the cow two or three days, if it is then to be taken away. ”

“ She builds no big muscles with which to climb mountains, or wade through mud and snow drifts. The beef animal if treated like a dairy cow simply gets fat and is finally turned to the butcher. The dairy cow treated like a beef cow is a tragedy to behold. I [Pg 9] have seen both Holstein and Jersey steers out on the range where Hereford cattle stay fat and strong and I have heard the cow boys cuss about letting them live, for they were more of a ghost than a reality. ”

“ It is safe, therefore, to say that an animal whose udder and lacteal glands are regarded, by those who best know her capacities and her merits, as of only one quarter part as much consequence as the color of her nose, or half as much as the shape and size of her horns, cannot be recommended for the dairy. The improved North Devon cow may be classed, in this respect, with the Hereford, neither of which has well-developed milk-vessels—a point of the utmost consequence to the practical dairyman. ”

“ The milk of cows fed on distillery wash, turnip, and mangel tops, coarse herbage, and other kinds of inferior food, is always of inferior quality. Hence it is of great importance that dairy stock be kept in good old pastures in summer, and fed on Swedish turnips, mangel-wurtzel, and oil-cake during winter. It is true economy to supply dairy cows with abundance of nutritious food; and it should be constantly borne in mind that the milk from two well-fed cows will give more butter than can be obtained from the produce of three badly-fed animals. ”

“ Another interesting fact is, that we can discover all the signs on a calf, and are thereby enabled to select with much certainty those that are fit for the dairy, and to reject those that would be only a disappointment, if raised for that purpose. Of course, a very small cow, with ever so good an escutcheon, cannot be expected to give a very large quantity of milk, and might be inferior in that respect to one having a less perfect one, where the animal is of greater size. ”

“ At the age of two or three years the milky glands have not become fully developed, and their largest development will depend very greatly upon the management after the first calf. Cows should have, therefore, the most milk-producing food; be treated with constant gentleness; never struck, or spoken harshly to, but coaxed and caressed; and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred they will grow up gentle and quiet. But harshness is worse than useless. Nothing does so much to dry a cow up, especially a young cow. ”

“ As a profitable beast to the grazier, and the feeder, nothing can equal them in early maturity and excellence. For this purpose, the short-horns are steadily working their way all over the vast cattle-breeding regions of the west; and, for the richness and abundance of her milk, the cow is eagerly introduced into the dairy, and milk-producing sections of the other states, where she will finally take rank, and maintain her superiority over all others, on rich and productive soils. ”

“ It is not unusual for cows to give ten or twelve times their own weight of milk during a year. And the quality has been so improved that the milk of many a good dairy cow will produce as much butter in a week as could be made from three or four average cows of the olden time. ”

“ Is a breed that has been much sought after of late years, from their reputation for fine dairy qualities. The milk is good both in quantity and quality, yielding, according to a recent statement of Mr. Tennant, of Scotland, who owns a large herd, fifteen quarts per day during the best of the season, twelve of which made a pound of butter. The product of the latter averages about 170 pounds per annum to each cow. Another authority says, on the best low-land pasture, a good cow yields nearly 4000 quarts per year. This is a large quantity, and implies good cows and extra feed. ”

“ The cow is the poor man's dependence in every clime and, as the basis of the meat and dairy industries, is a large factor in the commerce of the world. Modern husbandry has been wonderfully successful in improving the breeds of cattle along two distinct lines, developing certain breeds for the production of beef and other breeds for dairy purposes. ”

“ The utmost gentleness should always be observed in the treatment of all stock; but especially of milch cows, and calves designed for the dairy. Persevering kindness and patience will, almost invariably, overcome the most obstinate natures; while rough and ungentle handling will be repaid in a quiet kind of way, perhaps, by withholding the milk, which will always have a tendency to dry a cow up ”

“ A cow which has no calf must be milked quite dry, not a drop left. Brewer's grains are good food for milch cows, they are not fattening, but will make milk. They are also good for young growing pigs, and for poultry.
HINTS ABOUT COWS.
First and foremost, a hint that every man who milks a cow should bear in mind is never to make her afraid of him. A cow that is frightened, worried, or fretted in the least never does her best. She becomes nervous and irritable, however good tempered she may naturally be. ”