SKIM MILK ANALYSIS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 176, 15 October 1927, Page 18 (Supplement)

SKIM MILK ANALYSIS

To most farmers all skim milk is equal. Deprived of its butter-fat it is looked upon as all alike in feeding value. Yet, according to an American authority, it caries * considerably in its quota of solids. Milk tested 3.5 per cent, contains approximately 8.231 b. solids not fat as compared with 8.971 b. solids not fat for 4.5 per cent, milk and 9.171 b solids not fat for 5 per cent. milk. Solids not fat In the skim milk would be somewhat larger per 1001 b. than with the whoie milk. However assuming the same relationship exists, it is estimated on the average that Holstein skim milk contains approximately 8.31 b. solids not fat, and Jersey skim milk 8.21 b. solids not fat, while Guernsey skim milk would contain 91b. solids not fat. As indicated above, the higher testing milk will produce skim milk having slightly greater feeding value than does the lower testing milk. While this is true of the averages of all these different tests of milk, yet individual cows themselves will vary greatly. It would not be at all unusual to find milk testing 3.5 per cent, fat that would have over 9 per cent, solids not fat, while milk testing 5 per cent, fat might have less than 9 percent. solids not fat. However, with a. greater number of cases averaged up, it would be found that the higher the milk tests the higher the content of solids not fat, and it is the solids not fat that represent the feeding value cf the skim milk. If considered on the basis of a large quantity of milk this is quite an important factor; yet in the case of the individual calf consuming less than 201 b. of milk a day, the additional feed value oi the skim milk containing more solids not fat is not a very material factor, as it would prove not to exceed .1 to .2 of a pound additional feed material daily. From the point of view of ceding either calves or pigs it would appear as if the difference in the feeding value of skim milk according to the test of the whole milk is not very important. -—and had her way.