QUICK WORK WITH DAIRY COWS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 21 August 1880, Page 2

QUICK WORK WITH DAIRY COWS.

How to improve and make the, most of milch cows is a subject which has been much overhauled of late, and many old maxims and traditions of the fathers are being weighed and found wanting. For instance, the theory that a cow is worth as much as a milker at ten, twelve, and even fifteen years of age, is one that will not stand the test. In the first place, a cow will, with proper attention, attain her maturity at her third year. Her strength and power of digesting food are then at; ; their height, and ever after must be & i decreasing series. Each year will thea ' deduct something from her value as food., The calves designed for mothers must ba kept growing. The heifers, after being bred, must have good attention, and be fed almost as well as if being fattened for market. Do not be afraid of getting them too fat. They must be sheltered and mado comfortable in every way, and should be handled and made thoroughly gentle. The result wiH be your two-year-old heifer will at calving time be developed into a cow> | almost as large as she will ever be. Now,, after she is well over calving she must bo pushed with the best of food,. No matter how good the pasture, she must have other food all summer, for besides the food! consumed to produce milk, she is still growing, and being young and her digos* tive powers being vigorous, if property taken care of she will produce nearly or quite' as much milk as your oider cows. After her fifth calf, or when she iB six; or seven years old, she should be fattened and sold for beef, and at that age sha will be worth nearly as much for food as at any time m her life. I have a 1 heifer that calved on May 1 last, being tlion two years old, which averaged all summer nearly five gallons of milk per day, and although bred again in July, is still giving over a gallon per day. This is not often exceeded by the best of fully matured cows. The fact is, not enough allowance has been made for the increased vigor and capacity for digesting food in young animals, and thus often a year hasi been lost in consequence of negloet tosupply sufficient care and food.—Timothy Wilson, Henry Co., Ind., in New York Herald.