Testing Dairy Cows.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 342, 13 February 1889, Page 5

Testing Dairy Cows.

TnE Farm eii has frequently pointed out j how important it is that dairy farmeis should take steps 131 3 test tho dairy capabilities of their cow. It is tho only means by which wo can ensure retaining only the best performers at the pail in the dairy. By weeding out fourth and thiul i ate animals the aveiage return per cow ii moneys i worth will be increased to an extent that | wotrld surprise a great many dairymen. A correspondent writing to Hoaid's Dairyman is \ery emphatic upon the wisdom of testing the individual merits of cows as milk, butter, or cheese producers. He says that the very first requirement is to obtain a fair knowledge of the milk >ield of each cow. To do this, he says, a sheet of paper should be ruled in lines both ways, with tho names of the cows each occupying a line upon the left hand side, while the days of the month run acros3 the top of the sheet, two spaces being allowed tor each, so that morning and night's milk may be recorded. These record-sheets can be made on brown minilla paper, by the u=e of a rule and lead pencil, at " a trivial expense. He has found it bettor to use small sheets and record only for a week on a sheet since large ones are'apfc to become \ery much soiled and the figures too dim for easy reference. For scales probably tho spring balai.ee is the cheapest but a platform scale will be more accurate. If one has a double-beam scale, the weight of the pail*, which should bo uniform, can be set upon one of the beams 1 so that no subtracting need be done. Pails can he made of uniionn weight by running a little solder upon the bottom of the lighter ones to bring all to a uniform standard. He believes it will pay any farmer to weigh the milk of each cow every milking in the year. The time occupied in weighing is far le;>s than one supposes. He has often timed his milkers when they did not observe what he was doing and found threefourths of a minute to be all that was required for weighing the milk and recoiding the figures. The extra amount of milk drawn°by good, careful milkers will more than pay for this time since they have upon the sheet before them the results of previous milkings and do not like to have the yield run clown too rapidly. It one cannot make up his mind to do his best in this particular let him take a single step in the right direction and wei,»h the°milk for one day in the seven, choosing that Avhich i 3 most convenient for the r/urpose and having a regular day, say Saturday or Monday. On this day lee the morning' and iiight's milk be weighed and the same multiplied by seven to determine the yield for the week, or rather at the end of three months calculate the yi Id of milk from the several weekly weighings for the quarter. It is not necessary to test a cow quarterly from year to year, but for the first year or so she should be, and in after years occasional tests should be made to ascertain if there are any material variations. From the total yield of milk as ascertained by the daily or weekly weighings and the percentage of fat, the dairyman has two \ery essential factors for making up the verdicts as to the merits of the individual cows. Of course those are by no means all the factors that must be taken into consideration ; the age of each animal, the favourable or unfavourable conditions under which they commenced giving milk, the season of the year and kind of feed must all be taken into account and are important. Knowing the yield of milk and the quality of it, one is in excellent condition to soit over the herd and dispose of those animals considered as possessing the least merit. Because of not having a knowledgo of the total yield of milk and the percentage of fat contained, he believes that many of the best cows in the herd are sold through ignorance and loft without piogeny to succeed them.