PERSISTENT MILKERS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21242, 12 October 1940, Page 19 (Supplement)

PERSISTENT MILKERS

PROFITABLE PRODUCTION It often happens in dairy herds that some cows, are looked upon as possessing exceptional milking qualities, because when they are fresh they return a high yield of milk. Probably in the same herd there may be found other cows that do not give quite as much milk when they are fresh but which hold out much longer than those which started off by filling the pail so well

It is the cows that stick to it throughout the year that make the money for the dairy farmer, and these are the cows that should be encouraged. Sometimes very serious mistakes are made in breeding and building up the herd because some dams are heavy producers when they are fresh, while there may be other cows in the herd which yield more in the year owing to the fact that they are more persistent milkers, and should, therefore, be better foundation stock for the building up of the herd. Persistency in milking is a factor in profitable production that too fe.w dairymen have paid attention to. As a matter of fact, if one examines the daily or monthly production of the cows that are actually profitable, in comparison with those that are “scrubs” and “boarders,” it will be found that one of the chief differences between the good and poor animals is the greater persistency

of the good cow. The cow that will make plenty of milk for a short time and then must be kept the year round when she only gives enough milk to make necessary the labour of milicing her, is a drain on the resources of her owner. The only cow that can show a profit at the end of the year is the one that produces well throughout the greater portion of the whole 12 months.