HANDLING A DAIRY HERD FOR PROFIT 53 



exercised that too long a period is not allowed to 

 pass before having the cow served, because some 

 cows have been known to put off breeding when 

 several periods of " heat " have been omitted. 



If the farmer is supplying butter fat to one of 

 the South African creameries, the best time to have 

 the cows calve is at the beginning of winter, say 

 April ; this would be an entirely new departure 

 from the prevailing custom, but it is nevertheless a 

 good plan. Butter-fat returns give higher cash 

 values in winter than in summer all through South 

 Africa. Therefore the farmer with from twenty to 

 thirty good cows must make his aim for these top 

 winter prices offered by the creamery companies. 



A cow can be made to give more milk at a 

 smaller cost when she calves in late autumn or early 

 winter than when she calves in the spring or early 

 summer October, November ; for if the cows are 

 handled so as to calve in April or May they are put 

 on to their winter feeding and will continue to give 

 a good yield of milk and butter fat while prices are 

 high, viz. from April to August. When the spring 

 rains fall between August and October or early 

 November, the veld is beginning to recover and the 

 spring grazing stimulates the declining milk yield to 

 a bigger flow towards the end of the milking period' 

 The cow then becomes dry in summer, January 

 February, when creamery prices for butter fat are 

 low, when the weather is too hot to stable the cows, 



