The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1909-08-19
How to Make the Dairy Pay.

How to Make the Dairy Pay.
R. II. Gardner's invitation to tn,
speakers to speak, and the guests Il
come to Oaklands his beautiful Sum
mer home at Gardiner and listen,
made it possible for Prof. Campbell
of Maine State University, and hi
colleague, j. R. Dyce of the college
laboratory, to tell several hundred
persons, largely farmers and thei
wives, how to feed the dairy COW anl
her calf and care for the milk.
The meeting was held on the green
at the farm house of the Oaklands
All about were the great barns and
out buildings, while in partial view
could be seen the stone mansion
plots of closely cut turf, corn and
potato fields, vegetable and flower
gardens, grand old oaks and pines in
large irregular clumps, part of this
great ideal estate, said to be in natur-
al beauty the finest in New England
Prof. Campbell in opening, spoke OF
the bringing up OF the young calf,
teaching it to eat and its proper food
Skim milk and ground oats are the
first foods. He suggested dried blood
for the 'soours,o so prevalent in the
young herds of many dairy men.
When three weeks old the calf can
be fed some hay as we'll, and none is
too good for the growing calf. Save
your clover rowen, and next best is
clover hay. The main thing is to
keep the calf growing. Keep it grow
in hn
well.
If you have plenty of skim milk,
keep feeding it to the calf. We have
calves of 10 months feeding on it now
Keep your calves in the somewhat
,darkened barn this season through
the day and give them run of the
yard at night.
Breed your heifers 30 they will
freshen only when matured. Some
kinds of Jersey stock mature earlier.
The average of heifers we maintain
to freshen at from 30 to 33 months.
Many dairy men do not feed their
"dry" COWS as they should. We dry
our cows so that the nutriment eaten
shall largely go to the growing foetus.
If we stunt feed to the mother, we
stunt the offspring.
We give dry COWS six pounds of feed.
To show what feed will do here is an
instance. We had an old COW we
thought to market, but for some rea-
son kept her in the herd. She was
giving at the most 300 pounds of milk.
She was fed good rations when dry
and the first two months of milking
had increased her average by 300
pounds and the next month by 700
pounds, and the second year did still
better.
1t is claimed generous feed produces
fever. True; but there is little dan
ger from this If COWS are kept in q
laxative condition. This can be pro
duced before and after parturition by
rational feeding on linseed meal, bran
mash, and roots. Always watch re-
amount of feed. Increase it gradual
ly pound day and watch to see il
the COW pays increased profit and stop
when reaching highest paying quanti-
ty If very prolific producer, the
COW may be physically weak, then it
would be unwise to continue the
maximum. Two COWS compared may
not produce the same result. Watch
the record and you may cut down one
and increase the other. We feed
eight, ten twelve, fourteen and even
sixteen pounds day. With the lat
ter we had a large Hostein that pro-
duced so pounds of milk day.
Arbitrary formulas cannot be given
dairy men. What is today in the
market cheap ration may not be 80 at
another time, or in another locality
Cows vary the same as people and
their individual task must be consid-
cred.
Mix your foods by weights on the
floor with shovel. Linseed is a
good laxative. Feed should be bulky,
it is better for the stomach; fine food
proves too heavy. Corn on the cob,
for instance, Is better than meal and
succulent feed is good the year round.
Advertised foods are often made in
whole or in part from waste products,
80 mix your own feed of good stuff by
good formula. Hay twice a day,
say 1S pounds and ensilage once.
Alfalfa is grand and clover comes
next. Dry COWS with dry feed, but in
some leases it won't work and you
must milk.
Mr.. Dyce said that good COWS and
feed, in part, make good milk and
cleanliness the rest. The dairy man
must use extreme care with his milk
else he loses much by the time it gets
to the customer. Cleanliness in milk
is everything.
In our laboratory we have tried
many experiments. One COW hair in
the milk pail would carry with it 1890
germs, and if the milk is not cooled
down in 20 minutes, each produces
5000. We found that $4,000 germs
would go into the pailduring an aver
age milking. Pasteurizing Of milk at
1853 degrees or 100 degrees is best.
Using other methods requiring 100
degrees gives the milk cooked taste
1865 degrees kills the germs that sour
the milk, but does not remove the
others that still remain in milk tast-
ing perfectly sweet.
Cleanliness remained as the great
desideratum.