1905.] Effect of Milking Interval on Fat. 169 



A large number of samples of mixed milk and milk from 



individual cows have been examined in the Laboratory of the 



Agricultural Department Reading College. 



Effect of In some cases where complaints have been 



Milking Interval m ade by purchasers in regard to the poor 

 on Percentage . [ \ c L . . „ , 



Of Fat. * at content ot certain " morning churns 



consigned to them by farmers, it has been 

 found that individual cows of the herd have given milk with 

 less than 3 per cent, of fat. In all cases this has been met with 

 in morning milk only. The deficiency in fat has always dis- 

 appeared when the interval between the evening and morning 

 milkings has been shortened. 



Many farmers try to improve the quality and bring it up to 

 the legal standard by extra high feeding, but this, it is pointed 

 out, rarely or never succeeds when the interval between the 

 milkings is too long, and attempts to improve matters in 

 this way are of no avail. Even if extra wages have to be paid 

 to the men the interval must be shortened. 



These observations may be compared with the investigations 

 of Dr. Crowther, Lecturer in Agricultural Chemistry in the 

 Yorkshire College, which were summarised in this Journal 

 (June, 1904, p. 166). Dr. Crowther pointed out that the yield 

 in the morning is greater than that in the evening. Morning 

 milk, further, is much poorer in fat, but usually slightly richer 

 in solids-not-fat than evening milk. The differences are, how- 

 ever, very considerably less when the intervals between con- 

 secutive milkings are equal. Further, the mixed morning milk 

 of a dairy Shorthorn herd may often contain less than 3 per cent, 

 of fat during summer or early autumn if the milking be performed 

 at the usual unequal intervals. Dr. Crowther, therefore, is of 

 opinion that an improvement in the quality of the morning milk 

 can be effected mainly by equalising the periods between 

 successive milkings, an opinion which coincides with that of 

 the authorities of the Reading College, mentioned above. 

 The liberal supply of concentrated, highly nitrogenous food 

 at the morning meal is also mentioned by Dr. Crowther as 

 a means of effecting an improvement in the morning milk. 

 On this point reference may be made to the article in the 

 current number on the " Relation of Food to Milk Production/' 



