Norwich bulletin., 1917-05-10
KEEPING MILK UP TO STANDARD
Effect of Season on. Lowing Testing
 Herd.

man with a herd of low testing , cows that may average above the standard for fat for the year, is con fronted with the problem Of keeping his milk above the fat standard dur Ing the summer. months. The Con necticut statute reads as previously stated, that lawful milk shal. contain 3.25 per cent fat.S.5 per cent solids not fat, and HIS per cent total sol ids. It states in section 2, No person shall sell or exchange, or offer for sale or exchange, or have in his possession with intent to sell or exchange, as of not of standard quality or by the ad- dition of any foreign substance or which has been wholly or in part skimnled"
 How shall the man with the low testing cows go about it to raise the per cent. of fat in his milk above the standard? Obviously the first step is to mix the herd milk as heretofore described and find out what the aver age test of the herd milk is. The in dividuals in the herd should next be tested, because there are always some low and some high testers in the herd He may then purchase enough cows of a high testing breed to raise the per cent. of fat to. the standard with out disposing of any of his cows, or he may sell some of the low testers and replace them with higher testing cows. In a. large herd this is. big
 
 will be found that it takes half as many or more high testing cows to accomplish the. desired result. Other ways of helping out on the proposition are to use the. milk of the low test :, ing cows for calf feeding and with drawing a few pounds of the fore milk from the other cows and use the re- mainder for market purposes.
 Of course the simplest way to raise the fat test is to. separate some of the milk and mix the cream with the remainder of the herd milk. While a case of this. kind has never been tried state what decision might be handed down, this act according to the state statute is a violation of the law as cream is considered under the head of a foreign substance" The principal objection; that has been held forth against this practice is that the nat ural ratio between the fat and solids not fat is disturbed. The solids not fat in cream are less than they are in milk, so that adding cream to milk to raise the fat; tests makes the solids not fat test still lower This objec- ton is of little consequence as can be shown by working an actual problem. One hundred pounds of 3 per cent ] milk required 1855 pounds of 30 per cent cream to raise the fat test to S.5 per cent. Three per cent. milk con tains about S.2p CT cent solids not fat and 3.5 per cent milk S.6 per cent solids not fat. Thirty per cent. cream contains 6.S per cent solids not fat. The addition of 1855 pounds of 30 per cent cream to 100 pounds of 30 milk could lower the percentage of solids. not fat one-tenth of per cent so that in. the resulting 3.5 per cent milk we should have I per cent solids not fat. while In 3.5 per cent milk from the COW there would normally be s6 per cent solids not fat, difference of 5 per cent It is, however cleraly shown in table that this condition may exist normally under summer l conditions. The method certainly has 1 much in its favor. It really seems the | only practical rnethod for a man with l a large number of low testing cows to | keep his milk above the fat standard | during the summer months