DAIRY. Milk, either in its natural state, or in the form of butter and cheese, is an article of diet so useful, wholesome, and palatable, that dairy management, which includes all that concerns its production and treatment, constitutes a most important branch of husbandry. The physical conditions of the different countries of the world have determined in each case the most suitable animal for dairy purposes. The Laplander obtains his supplies of milk from his rein-deer, the roving Tartar from his mares, and the Bedouin of the desert from his camels. In the temperate regions of the earth many pastoral tribes subsist mainly upon the milk of the sheep. In some rocky regions the goat is invaluable as a milk-yielder ; and the buffalo is equally so amid the swamps and jungles of tropical climates. The milking of ewes was once a common practice in Great Britain ; but it has fallen into disuse because of its hurtful effects upon the flock. A few milch asses and goats are here and there kept for the benefit of infants or invalids ; but with these exceptions the Cow is the only animal now used for dairy purposes in this country.
Breeds.—Cows of every kind are used for the dairy ; but there are several of our native breeds of cattle which are called par excellence " the dairy breeds." An account of these has already been given in the article Agriculture, vol. i. page 388. Whatever the breed, the quality is much influenced both by the age of the cow and by the way in which she is fed. So clearly is it ascertained that the milk of cows not exceeding four years of age yields a larger proportion and richer quality of curd than the milk of older animals, that it is customary in some of the cheese-making districts of England to draft off the cows to the grazier after they have borne two or at most three calves each.[1] Cows that are prized for their pedigree, however, are of course kept for longer periods, and few will part with a good cow so long as she continues to yield abundance of milk. In large well-conducted dairies, especially where, as in a yearly increasing number of cases, shorthorns are kept, the cows are fed so well that they are sold to the butcher at very nearly their original cost as milch cows.
Food.—The influence which the food of the cow exerts upon the amount and qualities of her milk has always been recognized ; but at one time a large yield of milk, free from any unpleasant taste, was made the chief object of regard. It was accordingly the practice in new-milk dairies to feed the cows principally with soft sloppy food, such as boiled turnips, brewers grains, and distillery wash. The milk produced from such food contains an undue propor tion of serum, and is deficient in butter, caseine, sugar, and phosphates the very elements which give to milk its value as an article of food, and fit it so peculiarly for build ing up the frame of young animals. When these elements are wanting in the cow s food they are to a certain extent supplied to her milk from her own system ; and hence it is that cows which give a very large quantity of milk generally lose the fat and flesh which they had accumulated before calving. In order, therefore, to maintain the condition of the cow, and enable her to give milk of the best quality, it is necessary that her food contain an adequate supply of the requisites for good milk. Her food, in short, must be substantially the same as that found most useful in feeding cattle for the butcher. It is now pretty well ascertained that the fattening process is accomplish 3d most economically by giving a moderate allowance of linseed or other cake, and of the meal of beans, Indian corn, and other grains in addition to the pasturage, green forage, roots, and loader, which constitute the bulk of the food of such animals. The following approved dietary for milch cows is taken from a Report on Harvey s Dairy Company, Glasgow, by H. M. Jenkins, F.G.S., published in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1871.
" During the seven winter months, when the cows remain entirely in the byre, the daily food commences with draff (distillery refuse) about four or five o clock in the morning, mixed with bean, pea, or Indian meal, preferably the first-named, unless beans are too dear, when mixed kinds of meal are substituted. Linseed cake is occasion ally given at this time to cows beginning to run dry, and also in spring to those that require a little laxative. After the first milking, viz., about seven in the morning, as much distillery refuse as they can take is freely given, and at eight o clock either oat-straw or hay (if possible). The latter is generally rye-grass hay of the irrigated fields which are held by the Company. The next feed consists of raw turnips or cabbages, given about ten o clock, and at eleven the cows are milked for the second time. The afternoon meal ia given at two o clock, and consists of steamed meal, turnips, and draff. At four o clock some fodder, generally straw, is placed in the mangers, and between four and five more draff is run in. Some turnips are always put in the steamed food. At five o clock the cows are milked for the third time, and are afterwards made up for the night.
" During the summer the cows get nothing in the byres but a little draff in the morning, when they come in to be milked, except towards the fall of the year. They are then allowed some fodder at mid-day ; and in a bad season they get a little meal with their draff in the morning. They are kept on the pastures all day, but are brought up to the steading to be milked about eleven o clock, as w T ell as at night. "
The ordinary management of cows in the cheese manu facturing districts is of a much more simple and less expensive nature than the above. In Ayrshire the cows generally begin to calve early in March, and they are all giving milk by the time when the pasture is ready for them. That time varies in ordinary seasons from the middle of April on fine early land to the middle of May on the colder soils of the uplands. The female calves from the best cows are reared on most farms. The calved cows get two meale of cooked food daily. The cooked food con sists of chaff and turnips or mangold, boiled together, with bean and Indian corn meal added. The other food con sists of hay or straw produced on the farm. The chaff and meal are frequently given, especially in backward seasons, for some time after the cows are on the pasture. On bare inland farms good managers use meal of some kind during a considerable part of the summer. In hot days, or cold boisterous nights, the cows are sometimes kept in the house and supplied with a little food. In August, when young grasses are failing, the cows are fed partly on second clover, or on vetches, and later in autumn cabbages and soft turnips come in to supplement the pas tures. When the weather becomes inclement the cows are kept in at night, and get hay or straw with good supplies of turnips. The turnips are reduced in quantity when the cows are put dry, which may be from one to two months before the expected time of calving, and the dietary is improved again when that time approaches. Where butter is made, mangold or turnips have to be given in a judicious manner, on account of the flavour. With the turnips given soon after milking, and a little nitre put into the shallow vessels in which the milk is cooled, there is little danger of unpleasant flavour. Mangold is most valuable in the latter part of spring. Its feeding quality is then at the best, and turnips are not so good. But for quality of milk, carrots are the best food of all the so-called root crops.
of green winter forage for milch cows. On the large dairy farm of F. Leser & Co., near St Louis, Missouri, the daily winter food of a cow consists of about half a bushel of brewers grains, 6 gallons of distillery slop, mixed with from
2 to 5 BJ of ship stuff, malt sprouts, bran, and Indian or cot-
- ↑ In those districts it is usual to rear one heifer calf for each three cows, and to have the heifers to calve for the first time at 3 years old, BO that the young stock of all ages are equal in number to the cows. As many pigs are kept as suffice to consume the whey, the proportion, in summer, being one pig to two cows.
