[lit] Veterinary Question, re Cows and Apples

[siderea]

Is there something about eating apples that would make a cow no longer give milk? Perhaps fermented windfall apples

Comments

I have no idea why I know this

[herooftheage]

If it is who I think it is, then according my high school English teacher, he actually had the problem of his cows getting sick from eating apples - apparently the sugar in them cause problems with fermentation in their multi-stomach system of digestion.

Re: I have no idea why I know this

[siderea]

Well, yes, see this is why I most specifically don't want literary opinions, but veterinary ones. The literary ones are all in entrenched encampments about it for obvious political reasons. The literalists sound to me (1) defensive like whoa and (2) tone deaf, so I'm not inclined to believe them, but I want to know if they have any actual grounds for saying "there is no symbolism here! none! it's about a cow! and some apples!"

So unless your h.s. English teacher raised cows...

Re: I have no idea why I know this

[herooftheage]

Uhm, he didn't, but as it turns out, he happened to know the author, and expressed the opinion as a result of a conversation with him.

Be that as it may, it strikes me as odd that some of the literati would go "nope, no symbolism here!", in that the author was famous for drawing symbolic meaning out of everyday occurrences.

Re: I have no idea why I know this

[siderea]

Uhm, he didn't, but as it turns out, he happened to know the author, and expressed the opinion as a result of a conversation with him.

Ah! Good to know, thanks.

Be that as it may, it strikes me as odd that some of the literati would go "nope, no symbolism here!", in that the author was famous for drawing symbolic meaning out of everyday occurrences.

Well, yes. :} But it's not "literati", it's, well, his fanboys that seem to be saying that. Actual literati are all for the obvious symbolic interpretation.

[batwrangler]

You might ask the Cooperative Extension folks, (parent organization of the 4-H agricultural programs).

[siderea]

I may do that if my veterinarian readers don't chime in first.

[ron_newman]

I know nothing about this subject, but was curious enough to do a little Googling, and came up with something called Sessional Papers - Legislature of the Province of Ontario, published n 1897. One of the papers (starting on page 46) is on Fruit Growing and Dairying, written by someone at a dairy school:one thing is certain, that apples can only be fed safely to milch cows in limited quantities. A few

[ron_newman]

And here's another Ontario Seasonal Paper a few years later -- see page 111. Someone did a study of various cattle feeds including apples, and concluded that apples reduced the milk flow.

[selkiechick]

Interesting. We fed our cow apples in the fall every year, and it made the milk a bit sweeter, but didn't do much else. But then, we gleaned the apples from old orchards ourselves, and only gave out about a double handful at a time (about the quart or so mentioned above).

Congratulations from a librarian!

[ron_newman]

Dear Ron,

Please let me congratulate you for the best use of a government document I've seen in a long time. I deal with gove docs every day, and this has really perked me up. Many thnaks!!

-- John Cash (sca Johannes)
Gov Docs specialist, Herman B Wells Library, Indiana University