88 



Milk Tests and Records. 



[may, 



milk, and it was found that a moderate allowance of say 

 20 lb. of brewers' grains per day had the effect of materially 

 increasing the daily yield of milk. The experiments did not 

 continue long enough to show the exact duration of this effect, 

 but it would appear to be more or less permanent, and would 

 in practice cause cows to yield considerably more than their 

 normal quantity of milk during the lactation period, which 

 might also be materially lengthened by the judicious use of 

 brewers' grains. 



The effect of brewers' grains on the yield is relatively greater 

 early in the lactation period than it is later on, but they cause 

 a material increase in the yield when used comparatively 

 late in the lactation period. As regards their effect on the 

 percentage of butter-fat, there are indications that early in 

 the lactation period, they tend slightly to reduce it, but 

 towards the end of the lactation period they do not seem to 

 have any appreciable effect. But in the case of cows whose 

 mixed morning milk is habitually low in butter-fat, brewers' 

 grains are probably not a food to be recommended, especially 

 during the earlier portion of the period. Their effect on the 

 non-fatty solids is apparently inappreciable. 



Having regard to milk only, the best time to use brewers' 

 grains is when the cows are well advanced in the lactation 

 period, when the milk-yield is falling off and when, as a rule, 

 the butter-fat is higher. They may be a very useful food 

 under these conditions, but milk-sellers should use them 

 sparingly even then if their milk is regularly low in butter-fat. 



The only certain means by which the milk yield of individual 

 cows in a dairy herd can be known is by weighing the milk 

 produced during the whole lactation 

 Milk Tests and period. The value of the information 

 Records. to a milk seller can hardly be over- 



estimated. It enables him to improve 

 his herd by weeding out unprofitable animals, and prevents 

 the loss due to maintaining cows not worth their keep ; and 

 where the herd is kept up by breeding, the heavy milkers can be 

 selected to breed from. A systematic milk record also tends 



