THREE GENERATIONS OF HIGH-BRED COWS
SECTION LXI. MILK, CREAM, CHURNING, AND BUTTER
Milk. Milk is, as you know, nature's first food for mammals. This is because milk is a model food—it contains water to slake thirst, ash to make bone, protein to make flesh and muscle, and fat and sugar to keep the body warm and to furnish energy.
The Different Kinds of Milk. Whole, or unskimmed, milk, skimmed milk, and buttermilk are too familiar to need description. When a cow is just fresh, her milk is called colostrum. Colostrum is rich in the very food that the baby calf needs. After the calf is a few days old, colostrum changes to what is commonly known as milk.
The following table shows the composition of each of the different forms of milk:
| Composition of Milk | Digestible Matter in 100 Pounds | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dry matter | Protein | Carbohydrates | Fat | |
| Colostrum | 25.4 | 17.6 | 2.7 | 3.6 |
| Milk (unskimmed) | 12.8 | 3.6 | 4.9 | 3.7 |
| Skimmed milk | 9.4 | 2.9 | 5.2 | 1.3 |
| Buttermilk | 9.9 | 3.9 | 4.0 | 1.1 |
A noticeable fact in this table is that skimmed milk differs from unskimmed mainly in the withdrawal of the fat. Hence, if calves are fed on skimmed milk, they should have in addition some food like corn meal to take the place of the fat withdrawn. A calf cannot thrive on skimmed milk alone. The amount of nourishing fat that a calf gets out of enough milk to make a pound of butter can be bought, in the form of linseed or corn meal, for a very small amount, while the butter-fat costs, for table use, a much larger sum. Of course, then, it is not economical to allow calves to use unskimmed milk. Some people undervalue skimmed milk; with the addition of some fatty food it makes an excellent ration for calves, pigs, and fowls.
