Milk production

“ If the calf dies, the milk ceases to flow, and it is only by keeping him with his dam by day, that an opportunity of obtaining milk from cows by night can be found.’ This testimony is important, by the proof which it affords that the permanent production of milk in the European breeds of cows is a modified function of the animal economy, produced by an artificial habit continued through several generations. ”

“ It will be found, we think, that bad wintering and poor pastures have as much or more to do than anything else with the production of poor milk. No breed of cows nor selection of a dairy can wholly counteract these evils. The yield of milk will undoubtedly be greater and better with some cows than with others; and so with naturally good cows, good wintering and pasturing will show quite as marked improvements.
We have in our mind an instance where, at the opening of a cheese-factory, only a few of the farmers, having the largest dairies, delivered milk. ”

“ There is nothing more foolish than to substitute the dairy [Pg 10] breeds for common cattle before we substitute the dairy man for the farmer or else convert the farmer to the dairyman’s methods in feeding. The corn stalks and waste feed make the cheapest milk and the red cow is the most economical means of converting such feeds into milk, provided we want only a small production with the least possible effort. It takes more labor to prepare feed for animals and feed it to them than it does to let the animals range around over the field and do the best they can. ”

“ Sources of Milk Supply.—The country resident will have little difficulty in securing an adequate supply of wholesome milk at low cost. He may obtain it from a neighbor who is in the dairy business or he may maintain a cow or two where the area is large enough to provide some pasturage and where a building for stabling is available.
If the milk is bought from some near-by farm it is important that the purchaser assure himself of the health of the cows producing the milk and of the sanitary conditions surrounding production and handling. Quality in milk is much more than cream content. ”

“ Since all milk produced cannot find a ready market as fluid milk in flush periods, the surplus must move into cream, butter, cheese, milk powder and other more or less nonperishable products. Since these manufactures are in competition with all similar dairy products, the prices for the milk absorbed into manufacturing processes must necessarily meet the competition of low-cost production areas far removed from the metropolitan centers. ”

“ The members of these associations meet and compare notes and a friendly rivalry is stimulated which may do much toward increasing production. As a matter of fact, where Cow Test Associations have been introduced, both yield and quality of the milk have been largely increased. ”

“ In the past in the cities, as in the smaller towns at present, the supply was largely furnished by the producer directly to the consumer. This direct contact afforded the consumer the opportunity of informing himself of the conditions under which his milk supply was [Pg 190] produced if he desired. The advent of the middleman in the business, and the gathering of the milk from many hundreds of farms, and its redistribution to thousands of homes has made it impossible for the individual consumer to learn anything of the conditions surrounding production. ”

“ The highest annual yield may be obtained by having the cows “come in” in the Fall or early Winter and feeding them well all Winter to keep up an abundant flow of milk. Then, when they come out on pasture in the Spring,—in the latitude of the Great Lakes about May 15th,—the fresh, rich feed will stimulate production and give it a fresh start so that the milk-pail may continue to be filled during the next few months and the shrinkage of the yield will 11not occur until the time when the pastures dry up. The cow will then go dry in the early Fall, when feed is scarce. ”

“ Cows fed on turnips in the stall always produce butter inferior to that of cows living upon the fresh and aromatic grasses of the pastures.
Succulent food in which water abounds—the green grass of irrigated meadows, green clover, brewers’ refuse, distillers’ refuse, etc.—increases the quantity, rather than the quality, of the milk; and by feeding these substances the milk-dairyman studies his own interest, and makes thin milk, without diluting it with water, though, in the opinion of some, this may be no more legitimate than watering the milk. ”

“ But now a considerable portion of what would otherwise be lost is saved by passing the milk through separators, and churning the cream into butter.
Previously to the enormous development of the urban trade in country milk, dairy farms were in the main self-sustaining in the matter of manures and feeding-stuffs, and the cropping of arable land was governed by routine. To-day, on the contrary, many dairy farms are run at high pressure by the help of purchased materials,—corn, cake, and manure,—and the land is cropped regardless of routine and independent of courses. ”

“ I have no doubt from what you say, that your cows are kept in the cow-house during the night, and only turned out during the day, as this would account for the difference in the quantity of milk. But such a mode of management, though it saves trouble to the dairy-maid, who finds it much easier to milk the cows in the cow-house than in the open field, is bad for both the cows and the dairy; as the cows, after feeding on grass all day, cannot of course relish dry food at night, and [Pg 310] whenever they fast unnaturally very little milk is secreted. ”

“ Despite much denial it appears to me that milk is not sold as cheaply as it ought to be. Everything should be done to conserve our herds of cows for the increased supply of whole milk and incidentally for the manufacture of cheese and of milk powder or of condensed milk. ”

“ It is a matter of great importance that the dairy should not be situated near a pig-stye, sewer, or water-closet, the effluvia from which would be likely to taint the milk. It is surprising how small a quantity of putrescent matter is sufficient to taint a whole churn of milk; and as it has been demonstrated that the almost inappreciable emanations from a cesspool are capable of conferring a bad flavor on milk, it is in the highest degree important to remove from the churn and milk-pail every trace of the sour milk. ”

“ Nothing need be said of the usefulness of a treatise on the dairy. The number of milch cows in the country, forming so large a part of our material wealth, and serving as a basis for the future increase and improvement of every class of neat stock, on which the prosperity of our agriculture mainly depends; the intrinsic value of milk as an article of internal commerce, and as a most healthy and nutritious food; the vast quantity of it made into butter and cheese, and used in every family ”

“ The trade subsequently showed signs of reviving, owing probably to the increased cost of the home produced article, and during the winter season of 1900-1901 the largest quantity received into the kingdom in one week amounted to 10,000 gallons. Of recent years a large demand has sprung up for sterilized milk in bottles, and a considerable trade is also done in humanized milk, which is a milk preparation approximating in its chemical composition to human milk. ”

“ The milk is cooled and bottled immediately after milking, and kept at a low temperature until it reaches the consumer, to prevent the entrance of dirt of any kind or the development of the few bacteria that must gain entrance before it is bottled. To produce such milk requires much expensive apparatus and much more labor than to produce ordinary milk, and as a result it sells for a much higher price, both to distributor and consumer, so that the market for it is rather limited. ”

“ Where artificial feeding must be started early, cow’s milk is almost universally employed. Whenever possible, “certified milk” should be used; the ordinary milk, however, can be boiled with little or no harm. In diluting and preparing this milk, we have the choice of several methods. The so-called percentage feeding, favored in America, is difficult and cumbersome, and has no advantages over its simpler rivals. Pfaundler’s rule may be safely employed. It is as follows: One-tenth body-weight of milk, one one-hundredth body-weight of sugar diluted up to one liter ”

“ This machine promises to revolutionise the milk trade, as farmers will now be able to convert the very perishable product of their dairies into an easily handled and imperishable powder of great use for cooking and the manufacture of sweetmeats. Explorers and soldiers can have their milk supply reduced to tabloid form, and a pound tin of the lozenges will temper their tea or coffee over many a camp fire far removed from the domestic cow. ”

“ Here the dairy farmer was either injuring his own interests or some other fellow was hurting it. The intelligent producer realizes that anything that is done to injure the character of market milk injures the general trade. Were pure milk always placed on the market, a better price could be secured for it, and there would not be the extensive sale for patent baby foods and condensed milk that there now is. To remedy this evil it became necessary to treat milk in a measure as the fertilizers were treated, or, in other words, determine the character of milk by analysis. ”

“ Consequently, twice (or thrice) daily every day in the year, the dairy cows must be milked by manual labour. This is one of the main items of labour in dairying, and is a delicate and important duty. Assuming 10 cows per hour to a milker, which implies quick work, it requires the continuous service of an army of 300,000 men, working 10 or 12 hours a day throughout the year, to milk the cows kept in the United States.
The business of producing milk for urban consumption, with the accompanying agencies for transportation and distribution, has grown to immense proportions. ”

“ 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 city milk supply comes from a large number of farmers who produce milk as a side issue. The methods of feeding and caring for cattle on these farms is in the main contrary to the instructions given by the dairy department at the State Farm. The men who made dairying a business here were learning and following agricultural college methods. They had good grade dairy cattle and produced fully twice as much per cow as do the farmers now in the business. ”

“ No branch of agricultural interests has changed so much and received such an impetus, especially within the last five years, as the dairy. Entire new modes of making butter and cheese and of setting milk have largely taken place of the old ones. Competition in making dairy products becomes keener each year, and every process by which the labor can be lessened, or the products be cheapened, meets with recompense. ”

“ As I am differently circumstanced,—a considerable portion of my dairy produce being intended for butter, for which poor milk is not adapted,—and as I fatten not only my own cows, but purchase others to fatten in addition, I have endeavored to devise food for my milch cows adapted to their maintenance and improvement, and with this view I have paid attention to the composition of milk. ”

“ The supply of milk is conducted, to a large extent, by towns' dairies, which depend for their supplies upon the dairy farm in the country, and 76it is obvious that a certain period of time must elapse, in the generality of cases, before a town's dairy receives its supply in the ordinary course, and this constitutes the greatest difficulty in modern dairy practice, owing to the liability of the milk to absorb bacteria, which during transit may multiply enormously. ”

“ But butter and cheese makers are too often expected to turn out first-class products from second or third class milk—a task impossible to perform. With good milk and proper facilities, there is no valid excuse for failure. ”

“ Those cows which give the richest milk, generally yield the largest quantity.
Yield of Milk.—According to Boussingault, a cow daily yields on the average 10·4 parts of milk per 1,000 parts of her weight. Morton, in his "Cyclopædia of Agriculture," p. 621, states that Mr. Young, a Scotch dairy keeper, obtained 680 [131] gallons per cow per annum. Voelcker found that some common dairy stock gave each of them fifty-two pints of milk per diem, whilst three pedigree cows yielded respectively forty-nine pints. ”

“ No foddering is done on the ground. Thus a supply of milk is kept up, and the cows get in good flesh, while their blood and bags are left in a healthy condition when dried off.
“This flesh they hold till milk season in spring, without other feed than good hay. They will not get fleshy bags, but come into milk at once. About the first of April they are carded daily, till they are turned to grass. Wheat-bran in milk or whey, slops, or roots, are daily fed, as they are found best adapted to the nature of different cows, and most likely to establish a regular flow of milk till grass comes.” ”

“ The mode of transportation depends much on the distance from the dairy-house and the quantity to be carried.
In winter, when the cows are in the barn, they are likewise milked twice a day, and the milk is at once strained through the hair strainer into casks made for the purpose. These implements differ according to the object pursued in the dairy; yet pans and pots are mostly used for raising the cream to be made into butter, since but few dairymen make cheese in winter. ”