Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-10-03
Feeding Eat 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 a 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 heterogeneous
ration, according to one theory, nor
by feeding grains rich in vegeta BILE
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, l
weighed 1,1S9 pounds and made on
this ration IA pounds of butter in
seven days; COW No. weighed l, 100
pounds, and made 10 pounds of butter
In seven days; COW No.3 weighed / ,16s
pounds and made SO pounds of butter
In seven days; cow No. weighed !, 900
pounds and made IS pounds and
ounce of butter in seven days On an
average little over % pounds of milk
was required to make 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. 1
made 20 pounds of butter in seven
days; COW No. 2, III pounds; COW
No. 10 pounds and IA ounces,
and COW No. z, IL pounds
and 1 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 1917 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 l to
March l preceding. 1t is announced
that the experimenters are to repeat
the test beginning in June OF this
year. We do not understand that
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 ensilage and grain
are made to produce II pounds by add
ing the tallow to the ration; the
yield was increased one-half It is
further represented that beef tallow
is worth, with them, three cents
pound while butter fat is worth TWEEN
ty-fve cents. Assuming that the in
crease could be made on the whole
herd, it would amount to 1872 pounds
in seven days, worth S4s.OO the cost
of the tallow necessary to make it
would be $13.44; profit 1914. Sc. Why
havn't they been making this profit
every week since they found out two
years ago that it could be done? If
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 don't
those who have discovered that they
can do it go on doing it? We don't
want to seem to be doubling 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.