The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-07-16
MILK FLOW INCREASED.
Dipping Does Not Reduce Yield-Ticks
Take Toll from Blood of Dairy

Dipping cows to kill fever ticks &C.
tually increases milk yields" says the
United States department of agriculture
in a recent statement. This is proved
in actual experiment and in the results
obtained in thousands of dairy herds the
owners of which are thorough believers
in tick eradication by the dipping vat
method. Careful records prove that
lightly infested cows produce 1876 per
cent less milk than free cows, while cows
heavily infested produce on an average
42.4 per cent less milk than similar cows
freed from ticks. This was established
by records of yields kept over consider
able periods for ticky herds before they
were dipped and for the same herds aft
er they were dipped.
"A herd of 20 lightly licked cows pro-
duced 20 quarts less milk per day. or
loss of $500 quarts in 200 days milking,
than 20 ticket-free cows of the same
kind. Twenty heavily licked cows pro-
duced 81 quarts per day less, or loss
of l3,400 quarts in 200 days milking,
than 20 tick free cows of similar breed.
The monetary gain from dipping of the
lightly infested herd would have been
$3.50 a year; from the heavily licked
herd a dipping would have given in
creased profits of $500 a year.
Here is an actual record from dairy
herd: A dairyman in heavily infested
territory dipped his cattle. One week
after dipping, his herd of AZ cows gave
10 gallons of milk day more--an in.
crease of 1866 per cent from the start
The milk sold for 35 cents gallon, and
he got $3.50 more per day from his herd
from one dipping He had begun to feed
the cows instead of the ticks.
"Those who assert that dipping dimin-
ishes milk flow Judge entirely from the
milk production for two or three days
Immediately following the trip to the
vat. 1t is natural that for two or three 1
days after mich animal has been driv- |
en- few miles and gone through the ex-
element of dipping, her milk flow will |
temporarily fall off slightly. The actual
figures show that for two OF three DAYS |
there may be a reduction of an average |
of 1915 per cent, or about 0.S of a quart |
for an eight-quart COW. In three to five |
days the temporary falling off disappears
and if the dairyman would keep records
over any long period he would find that
getting rid of ticks was increasing his
actual milk production from Is to AZ per
cent.
THAT dipping cows to get rid of cattle
ticks must increase milk flow can readily
be reasoned out by anyone who will ap-
proach the subject with an open mind
and not let his prejudice fight his pocket
book. Cows can make milk only from
blood. 1t follows that the more blood
ticks suck out from them the less mate
rial the cows will have to turn into milk.
When it is realized that the ticks on a
heavily infested animal consume as much
as 200 pounds of blood year, it can be
seen that heavily infested COW will !
lose by the tick route large and i'm
portant amount of milk making mate {
rial. When it is realized that the COW !
can make blood to supply her milk glands {,
only from the feed she consumes, it can
be seen that the tick by sucking blood =
is wasting lot of good feed that ought |
TO be going to increase milk production
at is as unreasonable to estimate the {
effect of dipping on cows yield from !
the milk she gives for two DAYS after she i