Dairy Qualifications of Ayrshire Cattle.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2534, 6 October 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

Dairy Qualifications of Ayrshire Cattle.

' The Avshiro cow ranks very high, alike • as to the quantity and quality of itv • produce. We have 011 n-uord a ijmv i belonging Wallao'i, i>f of milk, but tin's was an exceptional animal. A fair average of herds of, say, .">!) cows not specially selected, runs from d.'! ) lo iiliO gallons per annum. In any view, one is quite justified in S'lyiuy that, an Aysi'iirt! cow iinglit to yield over gallons per amnio,, showing I'J. 1 , por cent, ot solids. I- i.o l(i per cent, of cream, an I P ,:l ' cent, of butter f:it. Any au.'ioil yielding fess is deei.ledly ;in i 11 ii ti •!' one, while selected aninrils may yield to auy degree above this, and it ii to hi; Imped the sysii'in id' »>>i'i«• -; fi : "! : :>■'v.' -"i'abii- '.r,: hi 1 •'!•;. »!!>• ! "t.:i ;>">(:• f:I! 1 y iw.d iueoiii'ly i'.'niti'ed and bv Ayrshire li-vc/iLi'- 1 , » iil tend ;o development of this power. In Lhe Renfrewshire milking competition of Ayrshire® for ISS:!, where i.he milk was tested and the priz •« awarded purely by weight, the leading prize-winners gave over H lbs jf milk at one milking, and the writer has had recently tested an ordinary stock Ayrshire, which is presently yielding 70 lis of milk daily, and receives no other feeding than the giass which she pails. In the"milking competitions of the London. .Dairy Show and the Oxfordshire ami other shows, the Ayrshires havq stepped far

abend of the shorthorn?, Guernseys, etc., in the quantity and quality of the milk which tlioy yielded. In their native district by far the largest part of the milk of an Ayrshire cow is used for the manufacture of Cheddar cheese, though in some parts a lot of butler is made, and near tho largo to win and railway .stations considerable quantities are now sent off when newly taken from the udder. The milk of tho Ayrshire is pre-eminently suitable for choose making, from its composition and structure. All samples of milk under the microscope are seen to be composed of a homogeneous fluid, in which float little globules of butter fat. These globules vary in size, and while in the Jersey they are comparatively large—thus making the crcain ri<e faster and in moro'tmlk, yielding- much butter—in the Ayrshire they are small, and not rising quickly, but mixing with tho curd better, make an evenly rich cheese. The quantity of cheese yielded by each animal is over 5 c.wt., locally estimated in so many stones of 2-Üb, each in /rood localities where ft generous system of feeding is pursued. As to tho butter yielding properties of the Ayrshire dairy cow, tho ordinary milk shows about 31 to -1£ per cent, of butter fat, while selected animals just come up to the Jerseys. Tho average yield, so far as records go, ought to bo something like 2UOI b. per annum. Tho writer has, however, had tested at present ti four-year-old Ayrshire cow, which is yielding lolb. of butter per week. Tho exercise to which the Ayrshire cow has been accustomed, generation after generation, has tended to develope the caseine of t milk, but has been largely against tho formation of butter. I have no doubt, however, that selection would speedily alter this whore the Ayrshire is dosired solely for butter purposes. Taken, as regards actual quantity, Ayrshires are far ahead of any other breeds iu the actual results.