Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-10-15
Influence Of Food on Milk.

influence OF Food on MILK.
PROBABLY very few farmers who have
not paid special attention to the subject
will believe that the food given COW has
no appreciate effect upon the quality of
her milk. Food may be given to increase
or decrease the quantity of milk, but the
quality remains almost exactly the same.
OF course we now refer to cows in good
condition, as usually seen when out at
pasture in summer, or fed on good hay,
roots and meal in winter. This state
ment, that the quality of food given a
COW does not affect the quality of her
milk, will no doubt strike many a farmer
as an absurdity; but we think a little in
vestigation will show the truth of the
assertion, even without having recourse
to actual chemical tests. 1t is certainly
well known to every farmer who keeps a
herd of mixed breeds of cows that some
give richer milk than others, while all
may be fed exactly alike and upon the
same food.
There is frequently very marked diff
ference in the quality of the milk of diff.
ferent cows, so much SO that six quarts
of milk from one will yield as much but
ter as twelve of another, and these pro-
portions of richness continue through
life one animal always yielding rich
milk and the other poor. Every farmer
can probably call to mind just such in
stances of good and bad butter producers
among his own or neighbors' cows. Now,
if the quality of the milk, so far as it re-
| lates to the butyrine properties, could be
| improved by special feeding, a change
would easily be wrought, but it cannot
! be done by any known process. The
| n,al;,,y Of q nnu>a MILL annpars n hn 90
! fixed as her height or color, and if rich
| at the beginning of her life it will remain
| so to the end. The quantity may be in
| creased or decreased almost at will by
| change in quality or quantity of food,
| but the butter which may be obtained
from a given quantity will be almost ex-
actly the same, varying slightly as the
! distance increases from the time of
calving.
| We know that as rule better butter is
made from cows in spring and summer
| than in winter, and the color is also
| deeper yellow but this is due to chemical
action, and probably to n small amount
| of coloring matter introduced with the
food. The butyraceous substances found
in the milk are present in the plants con-
sumed by the animal. "To say that the
fattening OK finds in his food the fat
which he sssimilates," says Nj. Payen,
"is no longer startling when one is con
WINGED, as have been, by researches, to
which / have dedicated the last ten
years, that there is almost constantly
found IN plants union OF neutral
azotized matter and fat substances" But
the digestive organs of different animals
appear to be meChanisms which produce
different results from the same food
~, Il. Al. I,
Giles found in plants forward into her
milk; another retains them in her system
in the form of flesh; hence we sec those
giving very rich milk are more inclined
to be poor and raw-boncd" than those
yielding an inferior quality.
The experiments and researches Of our
most eminent agricultural chemists, as
sisted by noted naturalists, all tend in the
one direction, proving beyond doubt that
food has little to do in fixing the quality
of the milk. 1t is also a pretty well set
tied principle that the fatty matter of the
animal carcass and that of the milk are
not formed within the body, but are de-
rived from fatty matter in the food; con
sequcntly the process CT fattening and
the process of forming milk in
the female mammal are antagonistic,
and either can only prevail at the
expense of the other. Hence, as we
have said, easily and readily fattening
breeds are, AZ q rule, inferior for dairy
purposes. 1t Is true that Liebig, the EN-.
inent German chemist concluded from
experimenting upon goose that the fat
of herbiverous animals was the product
of their interior economy, and many of
our chemists follow him in this opinion;
but it matters not in "a practical view of
the question which school is right, SO
long as rich food is given the animal.
The same principle holds good with
other animals as we'll as with COWS
Among certain breeds of hogs which fat
ten easily and rapidly the females are
poor mothers, on account Of yielding a
small amount or "a poor quality Of milk.
Our farmers have only TO keep these
principles in view when selecting a breed
for particular purpose. There is no one
breed possessing all the desirable quail
ties to an eminent degree. If you want
butter and cheese, then the best breed Of
COWS for this purpose should be selected.
If this cannot be done, then careful Sc
lections from common stock may be tried
until the inferior animals arc weeded out.
But it is neither economy nor good poll
cy to keep or continue to breed from a
heifer giving milk of an inferior quality,
hoping that it may increase in richness
as she increases in age. "Once poor al
ways poor" is true maxim in regard to
the milk of cows.-N. Y. Sun.