+--------------+-------+-------+--------+---------+--------+ | Cow. | Age. | Live- |In Milk.| Butter. | Butter | | | |Weight.| | | Ratio. | +--------------+-------+-------+--------+---------+--------+ | | Years.| lb. | Days. | lb. oz. | lb. | | Sundew 4th | 8 | 929 | 77 | 3 6¾ | 15.10 | | Madeira 5th | 7 | 1060 | 107 | 2 15½ | 16.14 | | Em | 7 | 864 | 44 | 3 4¾ | 13.32 | +--------------+-------+-------+--------+---------+--------+
The eight prize-winning Jerseys on this occasion, with an average weight of 916 lb. and an average of 117 days in milk, yielded an average of 2 lb. 9 oz. of butter per cow in the twenty-four hours, the butter ratio working out at 16.69. At the Tring show of 1900 a Shorthorn cow Cherry gave as much as 4 lb. 4½ oz. of butter in twenty-four hours; she had been in milk 41 days, and her butter ratio worked out at 15.79, which is unusually good for a big cow.
In the six years 1895 to 1900 inclusive 285 cows of the Shorthorn, Jersey, Guernsey and Red Polled breeds were subjected to butter tests at the London dairy show, and the general results are summarized in Table IV.
Although cows in the showyard may perhaps be somewhat upset by their unusual surroundings, and thus not yield so well as at home, yet the average results of these butter-test trials over a number of years are borne out by the private trials that have taken place in various herds. The trials have, moreover, brought into prominence the peculiarities of different breeds, such as: (a) that the Shorthorns, Red Polls and Kerries, being cattle whose milk contains small fat globules, are better for milk than the Jerseys and Guernseys, whose milk is richer, containing larger-sized fat globules, and is therefore more profitable for converting into butter; (b) that the weights of the animals, and consequently the proportionate food, must be taken into account in estimating the cost of the dairy produce; (c) that the influence of the stage reached in the period of lactation is much more marked in some breeds than in others.
TABLE IV.--_Average Butter Yields and Butter Ratios at the London Dairy Show, Six Years, 1895-1900._
+--------------+-------+-------+---------+--------------+ | Breed. |No. of | In | Butter. | Milk to 1 lb.| | | Cows. | Milk. | | Butter. | +--------------+-------+-------+---------+--------------+ | | | Days. | lb. oz. | lb. | | Shorthorn | 106 | 50 | 1 11 | 28.81 | | Jersey | 126 | 99 | 1 10¼ | 19.15 | | Guernsey | 23 | 72 | 1 9½ | 21.86 | | Red Polled | 30 | 60 | 1 4¾ | 30.29 | +--------------+-------+-------+---------+--------------+