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The heaviest yields of milk are given by the Dexter, Ayrshire and
Jersey animals. Chemical composition really means fat percentage,
as all the other constituents, such as milk sugar, protein ash and water
are classed as solids, not fat. The highest percentage of fat is given by
the Jersey, Dexter and Guernsey animals The percentage of total
solids is the best measure of the cheese making potentialities of the
milk, and the best animals for this purpose are the Dexter, Jersey and
Ayrshire cattle. Coming to cost of production, we realise that milk
production is a business, it must be made to pay. The cost of milk
production is dependent upon: (l) the cost of cows' food; (2) the cost
of labour and the depreciation of animals through disease, such as
tuberculosis. As to the Cost of Food, a cow's maintenance ration
should be considered in relation to its live weight. So much of that
ration is required for the cow's maintenance and so much for the
production of the cow's milk. The outdoor cow needs more food than
the indoor one, but the housed cow is not so healthy, and so the depreciation
bill goes up. As to the Cost of Labour, The breed which is
kept out of doors day and night, summer and winter, costs less in labour
than the breed which is housed from October to May. Breeds kept in
cold an exposed districts needing winter housing, cost more in labour
than those kept in warmer and more sheltered districts.
Depreciation depends on the cost of maintaining a herd at its normal
size, replacing cows which have to be sold, or losses by disease and
death. The scientific farmer is now able to define the actual cost of
producing a gallon of milk. In the war years a Travelling Commission
found that the cost of feeding cows formed 72 per cent. of the total cost
of milk production in the winter, and 53 percent, of the total cost during
the summer. The cow's ration is now calculated on scientific lines.
This subject has been dealt with fully by Mr. Garrad, the Agricultural
Organiser for Kent. The man who knows a cow simply as an
animal which produces milk will be surprised to learn that in winter
time she eats some 70 lbs. of food daily, made up of roots, hay, straw,
wet grains, cakes and meals. Every county should have its Agricultunal
Organiser. As an example of their value, take the case of
Mr. Garrad, the Kent Organiser, He collected information from a
number of farms through the milk recorders of the Kent Milk Recording
Society, and he was at once struck with the enormous variations in the
quantities of food given to the cows on the various farms. He found
that the cost of food per cow per day and the cost of food per gallon of
milk was at least three times as great on some farms as on others.