Milch Cows and Dairy Farming: Comprising the Breeds, Breeding, and Management, in Health and Disease, of Dairy and Other Stock, the Selection of Milch Cows, with a Full Explanation of Guenon's Method; The Culture of Forage Plants, and the Production of Milk, Butter, and Cheese: Embodying the Most Recent Improvements, and Adapted to Farming in the United States and British Provinces. With a Treatise upon the Dairy Husbandry of Holland; To Which Is Added Horsfall's System of Dairy ManagementFlint, Charles Louis
Science
Milch Cows and Dairy Farming: Comprising the Breeds, Breeding, and Management, in Health and Disease, of Dairy and Other Stock, the Selection of Milch Cows, with a Full Explanation of Guenon's Method; The Culture of Forage Plants, and the Production of Milk, Butter, and Cheese: Embodying the Most Recent Improvements, and Adapted to Farming in the United States and British Provinces. With a Treatise upon the Dairy Husbandry of Holland; To Which Is Added Horsfall's System of Dairy Management
Flint, Charles Louis
Cows; Dairying
Roots and long hay may be given during the day; and at the evening
milking, or directly after, another generous meal of cut feed, well
moistened and mixed, as in the morning. No very concentrated food, like
grains alone or oil-cakes, should, it seems to me, be fed early in the
morning on an empty stomach, though it is sanctioned by the practice in
the London milk-dairies. The processes of digestion go on best when the
stomach is sufficiently distended; and for this purpose the bulk of food
is almost as important as the nutritive qualities. The flavor of some
roots, as cabbages and turnips, is more apt to be imparted to the flesh
and milk when fed on an empty stomach than otherwise. After the cows
have been milked, and have finished their cut feed, they are carded and
curried down, in well-managed dairies, and then either watered in the
stall, which in very cold or stormy weather is far preferable, or turned
out to water in the yard. When they are out, if they are let out at all,
the stables are put in order; and, after tying them up, they are fed
with long hay, and left to themselves till the time of next feeding.
This may consist of roots, such as cabbages, beets, carrots, or turnips,
sliced, or of potatoes, a peck, or, if the cows are very large, a
half-bushel each, and cut feed again at the evening milking, as in the
morning, after which water in the stall, if possible.
The less cows are exposed to the cold of winter, the better. They eat
less, thrive better, and give more milk, when kept housed all the time,
than when exposed to the cold. Caird mentions a case where a herd of
cows, which had been usually supplied from troughs and pipes in the
stalls, were, on account of an obstruction in the pipes, obliged to be
turned out twice a day to be watered in the yard. The quantity of milk
instantly decreased, and in three days the falling off became very
considerable. After the pipes were mended, and the cows again watered as
before, in their stalls, the flow of milk returned. This, however, will
be governed much by the weather; for in very mild, warm days it may be
judicious not only to let them out, but to allow them to remain out for
a short time, to exercise.
Any one can arrange the hour for the several processes named above, to
suit himself; but, when once fixed, let it be rigidly and regularly
followed. If the regular and full feeding be neglected for even a day,
the yield of milk will immediately decline, and it will be very
difficult to restore it. It may safely be asserted, as the result of
many trials and long practice, that a larger flow of milk follows a
complete system of regularity in this respect than from a higher feeding
where this system is not adhered to.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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