Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-06-15
DAIRY AND POULTRY.
N NTERESTINC CHAPTERS FOR
OUR RURAL READERS
Fw successfui Farmers Operate This
Department. of the Farm "A Few
Hints as to the Care of Live Stock
and Poultry.

Kafir-Corn VS. Good Butter.
Prof. d. H Otis, of the Kansas Agri-
cultural College, communicates the fol-
lowing
The Kansas Experiment Station has
received numerous letters from farm
erS and dairymen asking if kafir corn
Will produce poor quality of butter.
The cause of these inquiries has been
the reading of the following dispatch
in our daily papers:
Lyndon, Kan, March 26.-It has cost
the Overbrook creamery of this place
$4Ov to learn that the milk from cows
fed on Kafir corn will not produce good
butter. For the past three months the
manager of the creamery has been un-
able to make high-grade butter, and
has lost about $4OO on a reduction in
the price. He had experts at work to
locate the trouble, but they failed.
Finally one of the common laborers at
the creamery did some experimenting
on his own account. He kept the milk
separate and churned some of each.
He soon found out that the milk from
the cows fed on Kafir corn was what
brought down the grade of butter
If Kafir corn, which has been such
should be excluded from the ration
of the dairy COW many farmers in CEN
trail and western Kansas would be
obliged to quit the dairy business This
would result in loss of thousands of
dollars annually. Fortunately other
experiences do not tally with the re-
port. The Kansas Experiment Station
has fed the grain and fodder of Kafir
corn for months at a time and has
never experienced a particle of trouble
from It's producing a poor quality of
butter. During the months of Febru-
ary and March, 1898, the station herd
was fed almost exclusively on Kafir
corn meal for the grain ration. At that
time the dairy school was in session
and we were making butter from the
milk of this herd without the addition
of any milk from outside sources. The
butter was tested by competent judges
and pronounced excellent in quality.
Since this time both the grain and the
fodder of Kafir corn has been used as
the whole or part of the ration, the
milk being sent to the Manhattan
creamery, where it has been saved to
use in the making of starters. The
milk has also been used each year at
the dairy school, both with and with
been specially sought for by our cheese
boys in their effort to make a first
class quality of cheese and in no in
stance have we heard a single com
plant from the use of the college milk
on account of the cows being fed on
Kafir corn.
When the season is poor one for
the curing of the crop and the grain
has been left on the fodder, consider
able penetrating dust arises from the
crop when handled at feeding time. If
the feeding is done just before or at
milking time particles of this dust,
with all the germs that they carry
with them, will undoubtedly find their
way to the milk-pail and may cause
poor quality of butter. In the instance
of the Overlook creamery, the man
ager states that the Kafir corn in that
part of the country had all been dam
aged by rains, and where the feed was
the poorest the milk from that farm
made the poorest butter. Indications
point to a slight decomposition of the
feed. Hay and folders of any kind
contain large numbers of offensive
germs. which If allowed an entrance
into the milk-pail and permitted to
multiply rapidly, will cause a very un-
desirable quality of butter This ex-
perience, together with others with
which we are familiar, points to the
necessity of feeding after rather than
before milking. In this way, Kafir
corn, properly balanced, is one of our
best feeds for a dairy COW and should
be grown extensively where corn is
uncertain.