Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1875 — Small and Large Milkers [ARTICLE]

Small and Large Milkers

A few poor cows are quite apt, hi one way or another, to work in a dairy and by their diminutive yield barely pay for their keeping, and perhaps not even that, but cause an actual loss. A dairyman of my acquaintance, having forty cows, found by measuring his milk that he had five in his flock which did not give milk enough in the whole season to pay for their keeping by five dollars apiece. He had five others that paid their keeping and five' dollars a head more. The profit and loss on these cows just balanced each other; he kept the ten cows a year for nothing, losing the whole of his time in caring for them and their milk, besides the depreciation of stock and interest of the cost, which were not taken into the reckoning. When I was collecting cows for the first dairy I set up an aged and observing dairyman said to me: “Look out for good cows; there is a great deal of money made in this country by dairying, but it is all made from the good cows.” The difference between a good cow and a poor one is not generally appreciated. Oftene? than otherwise the price at which cows are bought and sold is made to accord with the amount of milk they will give. But this is not a sound way of estimating their value. Beef cattle may be estimated by the pounds of beef they will make. A bullock that will make 500 pounds of beef may be worth half as much as one that will make 1,000 pounds; but the cow that produces only 100 pounds of butter a year is not worth half as much’as one that will make 200 pounds in Lhe same time. As it will take the former cow two years to make as much butter as the latter will in one, she will cost the owner a year’s keeping more than the other cow will, to get the stfme amount. The butter from the poor cow costs double what it does from the good one and is produced at a ruinous rate to the farmer. Such a cow will not pay the cost of keeping, and is only fit for the shambles. She ought certainly never to occupy a place in the dairy. But the loss sustained by a small yield is not all occasioned by a bad Selection of cows. Many cows which otherwise might be classed as profitable milkers are made unprofitable by the treatment they receive at the hands of the dairyman.. Careless milking, harsh treatment, worrying and exposure to severe storms and to extremes of heat and cold abate the flow of milk and occasion much needless loss. Twenty-five per cent, variation in the annual product is easily made by kindness and severity. Comfort and a satisfied quietude are very efficient in promoting a liberal flow of milk. Full feeding is equally ifo.p<irtant ? and the want or it is perhaps the mtist prolific cause of abatement in the returns of the dairy. In a large percentage of dairies the yield of milk is annually made to dwindle down to the limit of profitable production, and sometimes below, from deficiency and irregularity in the food supply. Very few dairymen give their cows as much as they can eat, except for a short time in the season. In th&spring

moist and warm a vigorous growth of 1 grq*s is produced, and a flush of feed I and flowing pails attest their full supply. But presently, in the long hot and dry days of July and August; tfita ground becomes parched and the grags stops growing and dries up. If the eews can .fIH ♦hemselves during the day tfiby are commonly allowed to run without any addi tional food. As grass fails in quantity and quality and more labor is required to get.it less is consumed and the milk dL jninishes.— Farmers' Advocate.