The Globe-republican., 1901-06-06
Kahr-Corn vs. COCO Rntter

Kahr-Corn Good Butter.
Prof. D. H Otis, of the Kansas Agrf-
cultural College. communicates the fol-
lowing
The Kansas Experiment Station has
received numerous letters from farm
ers and dairymen asking if Kafir corn
viii produce a 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 Overlook creamery of this place
$40u to learn that the milk from COWS
fed on Kaf1r corn will not produce good
Butter. For the past three months the
manager of the creamery has been I'M
able to make high-grade butter, and
has lost about $500 on a reduction in
the price He had experts at work to
locate the trouble, but they failed.
Finally one of the common 1aborers 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 Kaf1r corn was what
brought down the grade of butter
If kaf1r corn, which has been such
a good yielder and drought-resister
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
a
dollars annually. Fortunately, other
experiences do not tally with the re-
port The Kansas Experiment Station
Aas fed the grain and fodder of Kafir
corn for months at a time and has
never experienced particle of trouble
from its producing a poor quality of
butter. During the months of F'ebru-
airy and March, 1898, the station herd
was fed almost exclusively on Kaf1r
corn meal for the grain ration. At that
time the dairy school 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
out milk from otheF sources; it has
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
mas DG6n leIL on the IOQ0Gr, cOnS1d0r-
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 mi1k-pai1 and may cause a
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 entrance
into the milk-pail and permitted to
multiply rapidly, will cause very I'M
desirable quality of butter. This
perience, together with others with
which we are familiar, points to the
necessity of feeding after rather than
before milking In this way, Kadr
corn, properly balanced, is one of our
best feeds for dairy COW and should
be grown extensively where corn is
uncertain.