AVOIDING DISEASES IN DAIRY COWS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 120, 7 February 1918, Page 8

AVOIDING DISEASES IN DAIRY COWS

B One should start out keeping dairy cattle with, the purpose of maintaining only cows that wiLl more than pay for their keep and so be likely, by the use of a purebred sire of producing ancestry, to produce heifers rhat will ho likely to yield more than did their dams. With this object in view, no calf, heifer, cow, or bull should be bought "experimentally." Rather start with one proven cow than experiment with a number of unknown quantities. Heifer calves of high produciug cows are a far safer investment than aduit cows provided the quality of the sire is known, says the "Live Stock Journal." One cannot well build up a profitable herd from material that has proved unsuitable for someone else. If grown heifers or adult cows are bought they should invariably be about to caive or just have had calves, and the calves should be seen "alive and sucking," or accompanying their dams.

Too often the intending purchaset spends most of his time in analysing t-be row's pedigree and studying her conformation. This is necessary work, to bo sure, but it is absolutely imperative that the udder and teats should be carefully examined, and this often is neglected. First, look at the udder.' Suspect something wrong if a quarter is unnaturally red m colour, too small or too large. Reject the cow if a big lump is seen high up at the rear of the upper. It probably indicates tuberculosis. Next use the hand to corroborate or disprove what the eye has noticed as suspicious. Sit down and handle every part of the udder. All of it should be spongy, elastic mammary gland tissue. Nona of it should le hard or tumourlike, indicating tuberculosis or a previous attack of mainmiiis (garget), which will he almost certain to recur. Then examine each teat and its contents in turn. One does not want extra teats, Siamese twin teats, those that are too small or too large, or ones that have false openings (fistulao), or that are covered with sores or warts, or that do not readily yield their milk. Also examine the i'uid from each teat to make sure that it is normal milk. The expert, too, will carefully examine tho genital <rgans for symptoms of disease.