The Farm.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 11, 10 June 1893, Page 11

The Farm.

FEEDING WHILE MILKING,

This may appear a trivial question to discuss, but it is nevertheless meanwhile engaging the attention of the best dairy farmers in England and America. The arguments in favour of feeding the cows while milking are weighty and convincing. As Professor Primrose M'Connel correctly says, it is easy to understand that a cow with an appetising mess before her, |which she is consuming, is in a pleased frame of mind, and will therefore let ■down her milk easily and quickly. \Ve have long known that the milking function was intimately connected with the nervous state of the animal, and that animals which are naturally irritable arc liable to have their milk yield suddenly decrease, and that, everything ■considered, a calm-tempered cow is the best, Mr M'Connel’s theory is summed up in these words —“One of the very few enjoyments the lower animals are capable of appreciating is that of consuming tasty food, and as we know that with the human kind a good dinner is the surest means of putting such in a genial mood, it is likely to be so in a greater degree with our cows. Very naturally, therefore, our American friends have come to the conclusion, both from theory, experiment, and regular practical experience, that the feeding and milking should go on simultaneously. A good quiet cow will do her best, and a kicker or nervous animal will unconsciously become quieter and let down her milk when her attention is taken up with the contents of her manger.”—Australasian.