=Test the Cows.=—To ascertain if a cow pays for her feed the amount and
the quality of the milk should be tested and computed for the year. If
the milk from each cow cannot be weighed every day it may be done
regularly once a month or preferably oftener. If it is weighed morning
and evening once every ten days it is easy to keep the account by
multiplying the number of pounds by ten and adding the totals for the
year. Occasionally the milk may be subjected to the Babcock Test to
ascertain its richness; three or four times during the period of
lactation is sufficient.
Where farmers do not have time to do the testing themselves they often
combine and hire a young man or woman, trained in an agricultural
college, to go around from farm to farm and do the work. These experts
not only test the yield and the percentage of fat but also weigh and
compute the feed so as to help the farmer make up his rations and
calculate whether each cow pays for her feed or not. The members of
these associations meet and compare notes and a friendly rivalry is
stimulated which may do much toward increasing production. As a matter
of fact, where Cow Test Associations have been introduced, both yield
and quality of the milk have been largely increased.
[Illustration:
Dr. Bernhard Bang of Copenhagen, Denmark
]
=Healthy Cows= alone can be depended upon to produce sanitary milk. In
many herds of milk-cows tuberculosis is prevalent, and constant
vigilance is necessary to prevent its spread. The _Tuberculin Test_
discovered by Koch is invaluable for the purpose of ascertaining the
presence of tuberculosis. It is not necessary, however, to kill every
infected animal. Only where the lungs or the udder is affected and a
physical examination shows an advanced stage of the disease such radical
means are advisable. When the tuberculin test was first introduced many
valuable herds were wantonly and foolishly killed off because some of
the highly developed dairy cows showed reaction to the test while
worthless scrubs were allowed to live and spread the disease. For only
the intelligent and public-spirited owners of fine herds submitted their
cows to the test, a reaction to which, under ill-advised regulations,
permitted state officials to condemn the infected herds. In Denmark Dr.
Bernhard Bang introduced a system of isolation of the infected animals
which together with _Compulsory Pasteurization_ of the milk from such
cows has proved efficient for the eradication of tuberculosis, and the
_Bang Method_ is now generally recognized as the proper way of handling
the matter.
COMPOSITION OF COW’S MILK
Cow’s milk contains on an average in 100 lbs.:
87 lbs. of water
4 lbs. of butter-fat
3¼ lbs. of casein and albumin (protein)
5 lbs. of milk sugar
¾ lbs. of ash (mineral matter)
100 lbs. total.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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