EFFECT OF SILAGE ON FLAVOR AND ODOR OF MILK. 7 



From this work it is apparent that under these extreme conditions, 

 not approached on dairy farms, the silage flavor and odor may, to a 

 limited extent, be air borne to milk during production. 



" Natural," " nonnal," " good," and " excellent " were the terms 

 used in describing the flavor and odor of the milk produced outside 

 of the stable by the check cows in almost 90 per cent of the cases. In 

 45 out of 415 examinations, "slightly flat," "flat," "slightly salty," 

 " slightly off," and " off " were used, and in 6 cases the term " slight 

 feed." All these terms except the last are employed in describing 

 what are known as individual flavors. If we assume that a like 

 number of the 96 off flavors in the milk produced inside the stable 

 were also individual taints, this would reduce the possible number 

 affected by the barn air in Table 1 to 51 samples out of 415, leaving 

 364, or close to 90 per cent, which did not absorb sufficient silage 

 odors during the milking in the closed stable to be discernible to those 

 looking carefully for such flavors. 



2. FEEDING CORN SILAGE BEFORE MILKING IN UNVENTILATED BARN. 



Having determined the effects of an intense silage atmosphere on 

 the flavor and odor of milk under the extreme conditions which pre- 

 vailed in Experiment No. 1, the next step was to determine the effects 

 under extreme conditions on the farm. In this experiment the air 

 saturation arose from the silage which was fed to the cows in the 

 barn. The cows were given all the corn silage they would consume, 

 each cow receiving from 30 to 50 pounds in two feedings — one hour 

 before milking in the morning and one hour before milking at night. 

 The barn doors and windows were closed after each feeding. Dur- 

 ing this experiment the milk and cream samples were examined by 

 39 different men. 



Table 2. — Effect of feeding 15 to 25 poiinds of corn silage per coiv before each 

 milking in an unventilated barn. 



Result of sampling. 



Cows fed silage. 



Check cows not fed 

 silage. 





Milk. 



Cream. 



Milk. 



Cream. 





346 



346 



346 



346 







Off flavor 



313 

 33 



315 

 31 



30 

 316 



30 





316 







Off odor 



318 

 28 



317 

 29 



29 

 317 



30 





316 







In almost 90 per cent of the cases the terms used in describing the 

 flavors present in the milk from cows fed silage were " very slight 

 feed," " slight feed," " feed," " strong feed," " sweet," " fermented," 

 '•' malt," " slight silage," and " silage." From this it is apparent that 



