18 DAIRYING 



A. The Individuality of the Cow. 



161. The peculiar characteristics which each cow possesses, 

 or the traits of disposition that are born in her have a great in- 

 fluence on her milk secretions. The effect of individuality on milk 

 production may be noticed first as to the amount of milk produced, 

 and second, as to its richness. 



The amount of milk a cow is capable of producing is unfor- 

 tunately an unknown quantity with many cows, simply because 

 their owners will not give them feed enough. The grain ration and 

 other feed are dipped out to all cows in the herd in like quantities, 

 and the milk each one gives is supposed to be the best she can do. 

 This may be true; but each cow has her individual capacity which 

 should be found out. 



A certain amount of feed is naturally needed to keep the ani- 

 mal in normal health ; this maintenance ration is simply enough to 

 keep up the normal weight of the cow ; but no one can afford to 

 keep a dairy cow on this basis, as the profit she makes will come 

 from the amount of feed she will convert into milk above her main- 

 tenance ration without getting sick. It is therefore necessary to 

 determine first of all whether a cow will respond with milk or with 

 increase in live weight when she is given an abundance of feed. 

 No amount of care and feed can make some cows increase their 

 milk flow any more than it is possible to make a trotter of a draft 

 horse by feed, or make a man handsome by changing his boarding 

 place. A poor cow gives but little milk no matter how she is fed, 

 but a cow having a so-called "dairy temperament" is just as stub- 

 born the other way. She converts her excess of feed over a main- 

 tenance ration into milk and it is impossible to fatten her during 

 the milking period. 



162. The cow shown in Plate 2, is a good illustration of one 

 having a dairy temperament, as this cow was eating about 87 

 pounds of green feed and hay together with 22 pounds of grain per 

 day when this picture was taken, and the way in which her ribs 

 show indicates that this feed was converted into milk rather than 

 into live weight. She gave for 120 days an average per day of 67.5 

 pounds of milk, and this milk contained 2.35 pounds of butter fat, 

 equivalent to two and three-fourths pounds of butter. This char- 



