IRREGULAR MILKINGS.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 156, 28 October 1926, Page 6

IRREGULAR MILKINGS.

EFFECT ON BUTTERFAT. Interesting Experiments. There seems to be clear proof that irregular intervals between milkings influence the percentage of butterfat. In the average herd it is found that the morning's milk is poorer than the evening’s, but it seems to be clearly proved by a large number of experiments carried out in Scotland that the comparatively - low standard of the butterfat percentage of the morning’s milk was mainly due to the fact that the interval between evening and morning was longer than that between morning and evening. There is unfortunately no explanation why the longer period has such effect. However, it has been proved that when the cows are milked regularly, with equal periods between milkings, the morning’s milk is almost, but not quite, as rich as the evening’s. In one experiment 1174 co w s were tested during a period of three years,

i and the average percentage of butj terfat in the morning’s milk for that j period was 3.83, and in the evening’s I milk 3.92. Obviously the drawback j of poor morning’s milk will be al- . most eliminated by equally dividing j the time between morning and even- | ing milkings. The above-mentioned experiments j also showed that when the period beJ tween evening and morning milkings ■ was exceptionally long the butterfat percentage* went as low as 1.5 to 2.5.