[Reports and Appendices] of the Irish Milk Commission, 1911.

  • Great Britain. [Royal] Commission on the Irish Milk Supply.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: [Reports and Appendices] of the Irish Milk Commission, 1911. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    838/1108 (page 28)
    officers appointed under the Order, but they never did so. It is now generally admitted that the Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops Order, if properly and efficiently administered, is one of the most useful and effective of all the many beneficent acts comprised in the wide field of preventive medicine at the present time. That is the opinion expressed to me by the several officers of health, numbering about 80, with whom I discussed the question of the administration of the Order on the Occasion of my inspection visits through the south-western districts since February last. ^ Dr. O'Brien, who is in charge of the Belfast district, wrote, I can give you very little information in support of the suggestion that the enforcement of the Dairies Order in my district has caused any shortness of the milk supply for domestic purposes. I have only heard this suggested as being so in one district, namely, the Newtownards Rural District. This difficulty of obtaining milk was, I understood, experienced by the labourers in certain parts of the Ards portion of the Union. T have also heard, and I believe it is a fact, that the enforcement of the Dairies Order has caused a diminution of the milk supply to one or two creameries in the Bally- mena Rural District, Ahoghill creamery and its depot, and the Rathkenny creamery. The price paid at the former creamery was low and may account for the falling off of the supply. The reports of a number of medical officers of health in Counties Antrim, Armagh and Down, subsequently submitted, confirmed the statement that only in the Newtownards Rural District had farmers refused to sell milk to labourers for fear of coming under the Order. No statement was forthcoming from the Medical Inspector of the north-western district, as he wa§ absent from duty on account of ill-health. The result may fairly be summarised that whereas no doubt individual cases of privation do exist as a consequence of the operation of the Dairies Order, there has been no general or serious restriction. On the other hand, there has been a general improvement in the conditions under which the entire milk supply is produced. If our recommendation in section 66 be adopted even this partial grievance will be removed. Clune, 5435. Gordon, 54v9. Alleged Deterioration of the Milk yield. (53) The opinion of many witnesses was that the milk yielding qualities of Irish cows have deteriorated within recent years. In the absence of records it cannot be proved whether there has been a deterior-| ation or not. In fact, the only positive evidence, based on figures kept at the Agricul- tural College at Glasnevin, would show that the milking properties of Irish cowsl have improved rather than deteriorated. But whatever change has taken place,! there is no doubt that the average milk yield per dairy cow can be greatly increasedl by the adoption of suitable methods, and the Department of Agriculture hasf framed a scheme to that end which only requires the co-operation of the Countyl Committees of Agriculture and of dairy farmers to be successfully carried intol effect. The scheme is as follows :—Owners of pure-bred shorthorn dairy cowsl are invited to apply to the Department for the inspection of animals which theyl consider suitable for entry. The Department has these animals inspected fori general merit (appearance). The owners then keep a record of the yield of milkj of those animals provisionally selected. If at the end of the milking period the! yield of milk from each animal is 600 gallons or upwards, containing 35 perl cent, of butter fat, the animal is duly registered. The Department during each] season inspects the cows several times, has the milk weighed, sees that the records! are kept properly, and takes samples of milk to be tested for butter-fat. The ownerl of each registered cow must have the animal mated with a pure-bred bull of her own! type, passed by the Department as suitable for a premium. The female progeny! from these registered cows are eligible for entry in the register after inspection,! and are entered only when their milk record is up to the standard required. But the Department do not confine their attentions solely to pure-bred cattle. They are desirous of encouraging the owners of good non-pedigree cattle to keep milk records and have such animals as come up to a certain standard entered in al register. Owing to the much larger number of animals to be dealt with, thel procedure in the selection of cows for the register differs from that adopted in the