COWS RESISTING MILKING.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2224, 13 April 1881, Page 2

COWS RESISTING MILKING.

[“Prairie Farmer. Cows are often troublesome on being milked, and the kicks, knocks, and tall language which they receive for their restlessness only render them the more fretful. If they cannot be overcome by kindness, thumps and emphatic language will never make them better. But the fact is, restless habits were engendered in them by the treatment they received after their first calving, when, most probably, they were dragooned into submission. Udders and teats are very tender immediately after calving, and especially after the first calving ; and when unfeeling horny hands tug the teats in stripping, as if they had been accustomed to the operation for years, no wonder that the young and inexperienced cow should wince under the infliction, and attempt to get quit of her tormentor by kicking. Can the creature be otherwise than uneasy, and how can she escape the pain but by striking out a heel r A rope is then placed on the hind fetlocks, to keep the heels down. The tail is then employed by her as an instrument of annoyance to the milker, which >s then held by some one while the milking is going on, or is tied to the creature’s leg by the hair of the tuft. Add to this the many threats and scolds uttered by the milker, and a faint idea of how a young heifer is broke In into milking may be conceived.

Some cows are naturally unaccommodating and provoking; but, nevertheless, nothing but gentleness towards them will ever render them less so. Some cows are only troublesome to milk for a few times after calving, and soon become quiet; others kick pertinaciously at the first milking. In the last case, the surest plan is for the milker, while standing on his feet, to place his head against the flank of the cow, stretch his hand forward, get hold of the teats the beat way he can, and let the milk fall to the ground ; and in this position it is out of the power of the cow to hurt him. Such ebullitions of feeling, at the first milking after calving, arise either from feeling pain in a tender state of the teat—most probably from inflammation in the lining membrane of the receptacle ; or simply from, titillatiou of the skin of the udder and teat, which becomes the more sensitive as the beat increases ; or the udder, being still hard, gives pain when first touched—and should the udder be difficult to soften, it is beet to allow the calf to suck at least three times a day until the udder becomes soft. This will doubtless relievo the udder, but it will cause another species of restlessness in the cow when the calf is taken from her. Still, rather lot the milker suffer some inconvenience than the udder of the cow bo injured. Be the cause of irritation what it may, one thing is certain, that gentle and persevering discipline will overcome the most turbulent temper in a cow. Milting affords different degrees of pleasure to different cows. One yields its milk with a copious flow, with the gentlest handling ; another requires great exertion to draw the milk in streams no larger than threads. The udder of the gentle one will generally be found to have a soft skin, and short teats like velvet; while that of the hardened one has a thick skin, and the teats long and tough, like tanned leather.