Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-10-11
DAIRY AND POULTRY.
INTERESTING CHAPTERS FOR
OUR RURAL READERS.
How Successful Farmers Operate This
Department OF the Homestead-Hints
rs to the Care of Live Stock and
Poultry.
Feeding Fat Into Milk.

Feeding Fat Into Milk.
The vexed question of whether it is
possible to feed fat into milk is an
swered very emphatically in the af-
frmative in communication from c.
w. Jennings, in Hoard's Dairyman,
narrating an experiment conducted by
Messrs. Van Dresser of Cobleskill, N.
Y. The effort was not along the usual
lines of feeding a more nitroyenous
ration, according to one theory, nor
by feeding grains rich in vegetable
fats, according to another, but by
feeding animal fat in the form of beef
tallow. According to the description
given, four Holstein- Friesian cows
had been fed forty pounds Of ensilage
each per day with hay at noon, and
received in addition six pounds of
mixture composed of two parts of
wheat bran and one part each Of
cottonseed oil and corn meal. The
skim milk of the cows was also
fed back to them. This, it will be
seen, was pretty liberal and pretty
well balanced feeding. Cow No /
weighed 1,1S9 pounds and made on
this ration IA pounds of butter in
seven days; cow No. 2 weighed 1,130
pounds, and made 12 pounds of butter
in seven days; cow No weighed l, 1853
pounds and made 81 pounds of butter
in seven days; cow No. weighed / 200
pounds and made 13 pounds and
ounce of butter in seven days. On an
| average little over % pounds OF milk
was required to make a pound of but
ter. 1t was resolved to try feeding
pure beef tallow. One-fourth of a
| pound was first used, shaved and
| added to the grain ration, and this
was gradually increased until each
COW consumed two pounds per day at
the end of two weeks, Cow No.
made 20 pounds of butter in seven
days; COW No. 2, i716 pounds; cow
No. l6 pounds and IA ounces
and cow No. z, II pounds
and ounce. This result was
reached by test made at the fifth
weeks feeding of tallow, the other
rations of ensilage and grain remain
ing the same as before the tallow
feeding began. Only 1914 pounds of
milk were then required to make a
pound of butter. The milk was set in
small pans and the cream churned
with dash churn. The experiment
took place in April and May, 1892, and
the cows came in fresh from Feb to
March 1 preceding. 1t is announced
that the experimenters are to repeat
the test beginning in June OF this
| 70 nd hot
they have tried it since April and May
two years ago, and this is the sus-
picious point in the story. Messrs.
Van Dresser are represented as
having thirty-two registered Hol-
stein-Friesian cows-eight times
as many as they tested with
the beef tallow feeding. Four OF
the cows producing, say, AZ pounds of
butter per week on ensilsge and grain
are made to produce II pounds by add
ing the tallow to the ration; the
yield was increased one-half. 1t is
further represented that beef tallow
is worth, with them, three cents q
pound while butter fat is worth TWEEN
ty-five cents. Assuming that the in
crease could be made on the whole
herd, it would amount to 1872 pounds
in seven days, worth $4s. 90; the cost
of the tallow necessary to make ii
would be $l3 Al; profit S34. So. Why
havn't they been making this profit
every week since they found out two
years ago that it could be done? II
six cents worth of tallow can be trans
formed into "a cents worth of butter
fat by the very simple process OF
passing it through COW, why dom,
those who have discovered that they
can do it go on doing it? We don't
want to seem to be doub biting Thorn
as, and yet it appears strange that
any one who had discovered process
so simple and SO successful should try
it at such rare intervals.