164 DAIRY HERD MANAGEMENT 



yields milk of a fat content higher than the average for the breed. 



The effect of drought on the richness of milk is to lessen it 

 perceptibly, especially if the drought occurs early in the season, 

 before the grass lias become fully grown or matured. In 1006 

 an early drought in northern Missouri caused the fat test of milk 

 to decline as much as five-tenths per cent or from 3.7 to 3.2. 

 The solids not fat in the milk were also so low that the lactometer 

 reading of such milk was as low as 2 s or 29 with grade Short- 

 horn cows, when it should and normally would have been 31.5. 

 The yield of cheese as well as of butter was disappointingly low 

 during that season. 



Effect of Turning on Pasture. — One of the traditions of the 

 dairymen is that the quality of milk depreciates when cows are 

 turned from the dry feed of the stable on to the succulent spring 

 pasture. They w r ere often encouraged in this belief by local 

 creamery men during the days of the whole milk creamery. That 

 there is no uniform decrease in the fat content of milk under 

 such conditions is proved by the thousands of tests made of milk 

 at the ^Minnesota Station. At this institution a sample of every 

 milking is tested by itself, not composited, as in so many places. 

 For more than twenty years, with a herd varying from twenty 

 to sixty cows, tests have been made twice a day. The breeds 

 included in this and other experiments included the Jersey, 

 Guernsey, Holstein, Ayrshire, Shorthorn and Brown Swiss. 

 From the mass of evidence at hand it may be stated that the 

 usual opinion is incorrect where well-fed cows are concerned 

 that, whereas a few decrease in fat content, the average test of 

 the milk of the well-fed herd is greater following the turning on 

 to pasture than it was just prior to it. It is highly probable 

 that the impression gained a place during the pioneer days when 

 cows " spring poor " were often turned out to pasture long be- 

 fore there was enough feed even to sustain weight, to say noth- 

 ing of producing milk. 



Large vs. Small Pasture. — A small pasture wath an abund- 

 ance of grass is economical, in that the cows do not waste so 

 much of their energy in travelling about. On the other hand, 

 a study of the movements of the herd in pasture will reveal the 



