U.S. Experiment In Clipping Cows As Aid To Clean Milk

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 6, 6 March 1950, Page 4

U.S. Experiment In Clipping Cows As Aid To Clean Milk

Evidence to prove that clipping of cows’ and udders helps to produce clean milk with a low bacteria count has emerged from a trial carried out at the Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Wisconsin. Every other cow in one wing of the University dairy barn was clipped. "The entire area to the rear of a line frpm the navel to the pinbones was clipped, except for the switch. The workers were extremely careful to eliminate all differences except clipping. Both hand and machine milking were included.

Milk from the clipped animals was lower in average bacteria count for both machine and hand milking. As might be expected, the benefits of clipping were greater for hand milking. The clipping did not reduce- the amount of dirt in the milk enough to be measured by the methods used. The milk taken by % hand had more sediment, but lower bacteria counts than that milked by machine, but counts were very low in both cases. The results show that even when cows are handled under very clean conditions clipping helps to keep the bacteria count down. Possibly the difference would* have been even greater if less careful milking and milk handling had been practised. Another phase of the clipping experiments is being carried out to find out whether over-all clipping has any effect on scows’ body temperatures Nand milk production.