Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 203, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 September 1917 — RECORDS DETECT UNPROFITABLE COWS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RECORDS DETECT UNPROFITABLE COWS

(Prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.) The dairy cows of the United States now number approximately 22,000,000. The milk, cream and manufactured products, as butter, cheese, ice cream, condensed milk, etc., from these cows have an estimated value of pearly sl,000,000,000. In nearly aU herds of which records have been kept it has been found that Individual cows differ widely in production, even with the same feed and care; and this difference exists among all kinds of grade and purebred dairy cows, as well as, among cows of common stock. In 1915, in Wisconsin’s 47 cow-testing associations, out of 16,700 cows tested, 3,375 were disposed of as unprofitable —about one in every five. Using this proportion in the total number of dairy cows in the United States, 4,400,000 cows would be eliminated as unprofitable. It seems only sensible, therefore, that the dairyman should make every effort to discover the unprofitable cows and weed them from the herd. Through the keeping of records the unprofitable cows can be detected and eliminated and the profitable cows kept in the herd for breeding purposes. The next step is to perpetuate these good qualities by using a registered bull of dairy merit. But that is another story.

Fallacious Belief. Many dairymen believe that they can pick out their best producing cows without keeping a record. The fallacy of this belief is demonstrated every day by the records of the cow-testing associations throughout the country. Seven cows maintained on a dairy farm are taken as a basis for the rec-ord-keeping work to be illustrated. While the cows are all grade Jerseys, they possess individual characteristics that affect materially their net profit to the owner. Is it possible to tell by looking at these cows how much milk they will produce in one year, what it tests, and how much profit they will return to the owner? The first step in determining the efficiency of each cow is the keeping of a debit and credit account, in which the cow is charged with the cost of the hay, silage and grain she consumes and credited with the value of the milk produced. The dairyman can keep such a record at very little expense. To begin this work he must have a milk scale and a supply of record sheets. A spring balance, or milk scale, made especially for weighing milk, may be purchased from any dairy-supply house at approximately $3. Sample record sheets may be obtained through the state extension department, or through the dairy division, bureau of animal industry, United States department of agriculture. On the monthly milk and feed record sheet are entered the names of, the cows and the w-eights of the different feeds consumed and of the milk produced at each milking. A ten-day period has been found to be a convenient unit of time in the feed record, since changes in feed rarely are made oftener. The milk is recorded at each milking and totaled for the month. For the period that the cow is dry it is nevertheless necessary to keep the record of feed consumed, so that the total cost of feed for the year may be considered in determining the profit or loss. Weighing-the Mlfle — The milk scale is graduated in pounds and tenths, so that it is easy to add the figures on the milk sheet. The dial has two hands; the black one indicates the actual weight, while the red is adjustable and can be set at any desired weight. The empty pall or weighing can is hung on the scale and the red hand set at zero, and the black hand indicates the weight of the pall. When the milk is Weighed in the pail, the red hand indicates the net weight

of the milk, and the black hand the gross weight. By the use of an extra pail, the weight of which can be adjusted with the red hand on the milk scale, the regular milk pails need not be used for weighing milk. The milker in large commercial dairies usually wears a white suit, but any clean, washable, outside clothing is satisfactory.

REPORT SHOWING YEARLY PRODUCTION OF COW.