Dairy Cows and Caring for Them.

Manawatu Herald, 22 March 1892, Page 3

Dairy Cows and Caring for Them.

The breed of dairy. cows as dairymen may keep he will probably decide for himself ; but the most experienced authorities will agree that she must be a dairy and not a beef cow. 'By general cdnsent,' says an American dairy expert, ' dairymen have let go of the combination cow.' I have heard more about the special dairy cow in the paat year than in the ten preceding. The beefy, blocky cow of elephantine proportions is doomed for the dairy. 1 The profits of carrying 6001b of extra beef on a cow for six or eight years to sell at last for a cent per lb has lost its cbarin. The dairyman is finding out that the ration that makes lib of beefy steer can readily be changed to make lib of butter or 21b of full-creamed cheese. I admit that I have seen milk in copious measure drawn from the beef form, but the the beef influence gains the mastery, and the cow goes dry seven months in the year.

•Let the feed be what it may, however, that' alone cannot control the quality of the milk. The cow has an individuality of her own, a born milking habit, and the greater number of granddajns possessing the milking, traits the greater probability there is that this cow will possess like qualities. No man ever stimulated a cow into good productiveness unless she bad this born quality of development, to atavt with, and thousands of heifers that were born to make the best of cows have been ruined by bad care, cruel treatment, aud needless exposure. Every dairyman .should raise bis own cows as far as he can, and buy, if he must, wisely. For this reason he mnst be a judge of cows, a reader of cows, and in fact a cow phrenologist. Better care, feeding and handling of cows would carry with it greater success to the average dairyman. This idea of making a cow hardy should be eliminated from dairy wisdom At best our cows are boavdeis and the larger part of the year they pay the better. Winter dairying is showing what the profitable care 'of cows means. Some men neglect their cows through thoughtlessness. One must remem • ber, however, what will administer to the" comfort of the mother cow, quiet, care, warmth, comfort succulent, stimulative food, pure air* clean water and regularity of attendance, will help in a large measure toward success, for on this hangs the law and the profits, so far as the dairy cow is concerned I have found that success in winter dairying invariably depends upon regularity in every particular. ( Again to succeed, dairymen must stop trying to fit excellence and quality into a cow's milk above her normal limit. The dictum must be accepted that the quality of a cow's milk is born with her, and no feed will make a Holstein give milk as rich as that of a Jersey. We may feed as we please, but beyond the limit we cannot force the cow to follow.' — Canterbury Times,