FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



be prominent, the udder large and neither flabby nor 

 fleshy, with medium large teats, evenly set ; and ex- 

 tending forward along the abdomen should be no- 

 ticed strong, tortuous milk veins, which, carried 

 internally, are admitted by means of large milk 

 wells. These external traits are just opposite to 

 those that mark the best types of the beef breeds. 



What Influences Milk Formation? The milk- 

 yielding function is hereditary to a certain extent. 

 Certain breeds and certain strains of these breeds 

 possess the ability to yield much milk and to trans- 

 mit this characteristic to their offspring. Other 

 breeds yield very little milk, and no manner of care 

 or feeding will largely increase the amount or 

 change the character of its quality. Therefore, it 

 can be said with certainty that the influences back 

 of heavy milk formation are the breed and the in- 

 dividuality of the cows of the breed. 



Some breeds rank high as milk producers in 

 respect to quantity, others in respect to quality; 

 but in both classes much variation is noted. Among 

 dairy cows there remain large numbers that are use- 

 less as milk producers, and their production returns 

 in money are less than the cost of keeping them. 

 In time the milk scales and Babcock test will point 

 these out and they will be discarded from the dairy 

 herds. 



How Often to Milk. The custom of milking 

 twice a day has become fixed, and no marked ad- 

 vantage is secured when the number of milkings is 

 increased. Experience and experiments show that 

 three milkings a day increase the amount of milk 



