Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-03-01
What is q Good Cow!

In almost every department of indust-
ry or achievement, in human life, or in
development of animal natures, there
is a kind Of general standard of excel
'%ence, more OR less definite and more or
less generally accepted, subject to
variations of experience, opinion and
taste. Thus we have the old standard
OF two hundred running feet of hewn
timber as a days work for a carpenter;
two cords of wood as a days work for a
chopper; a certain number of knots of
yarn was a spinister's days work; 2::4O
was a trotting superiority a few years
ago, now it is good trotting, and 2:14 is
superior. Our short-horn men have a
standard for a good animal, and for one
superior, or middling, orinferior. Poultry
f%anciers have it all fixed by scales and
points. Only a comparatively few years
ago a millionaire was a very wealthy
man, now he is only middling.
But what is a good cow. Go to any
farmer in Iowa to purchase a good COW,
and you will find her right there, and
generally a frst-rute animal. So you
could find a piece of chalk. But there
are few so green as to accept the simple
statement of even a granger who desires
to sell a COW. And yet this question
remains unanswered: what is a good
cow"
To reduce an answer to a system,
might require much thought. 1t might
involve size, appearance, quality of text
ure, feeding habit, tendency to fat or
milk, quantity of milk, quality Of same
as to cream, butter or cheese, and other
minute items. But it is safe for dairy
purposes to come directly to the point:
the number o. pounds of milk yield Der
AMMAN. The variation in quality is an
important item, but on the grand aver
age for cheese, butter or cream, the
scales tell the essential point, and num-
Der the dollars the milk will pur-
chase.
If, we remark that the average COW in
Iowa since the settlement of the State
would probably not show an average
yield of ten pounds a day for two hun
dred days, or two thousand pounds per
annum, we should hardly be credited.
Still, an investigation might fairly con-
firm the suggestion. This yield would
give eighty pounds of butter, possibly
ninety, or two hundred pounds of
cheese. If milk sold at a cent a pound,
the income would be twenty dollars. 1t
is doubtful if the average COW of Iowa
has yielded this amount.
a late Ohio writer says, IN very
strong language, that a farmer was
guilty of moral wrong who produced a
return of only five dollars an acre, or
thirty dollars a COW, when it was posi-
BILE to produce twice that amount Our
Iowa farmers, according to this, have
been fearfully SHINING against the pock-
et-book religion, to say the least.
Is this Ohio estimate too large? 1t
would require a yield of 5000 pounds of
milk per annum, at a cent a pound.
This would call for an average of twenty
pounds a day for 300 days. Or, if milk
be rated at present prices $50 cents per
hundred), it would require 1900 pounds
of milk, an average of % pounds for the
300 days, which would leave the COW
sixty-fve days of rest from tactical
duty.
The Baconian philosophy now comes
in. Let us have facts. A Mr.. T. H.
Bowen, of Sand Spring, who has proba-
bly, given more attention to this matter
than any other Iowa writer, says in the
Western Stock Journal, that Mr.. A. Hall
of Langworthy, has a COW hat gave,
during part of May, all of June and part
Of July, sixty pounds of milk a day.
Her average was ffty-eight pounds a
day for one hundred days, and during
the last ten days of October, though
very cold and wet, she gave twenty-five
pounds a day, which yielded a pound
and a quarter of butter per day. The
annual yield of this COW would reach
10000 pounds, and she had no grain dur
ing the summer or fall. Here we have
what we will call a superior cow, doubt
less the best in Iowa. Her income
would be at least 800, for her calves
are in great demand, and the SOU milk
would be worth, say SO.
The same writer reports a COW belong
ing to p. j. Walker, of Farley, that av-
eraged for four months fifty-two and a
half pounds of milk a day. This COW
would give an annual yield about the
same as Mr.. Halls.
John Bates, of Langworthy, has TWEEN
ty-fve COWS in his dairy, so we'll bred
and selected that his average on the en-
tire lot is thirty pounds a day during
the height OF feed, and was twenty-five
pounds a day during the month of Sep
TENDER. His average annual income
from milk has exceeded $40, which calls
for 5000 pounds of milk each. These
are facts, not theories. So that we may
say that a COW to be good ought to aver
age twenty pounds a day for three hun
dred days; thirty pounds a day for the
same time would make her superior.
Any yield less than the twenty must
be ranked below par, and every farmer
should strive to attain, at least, a good
standard. Farmers of Buchanan coun-
ty, what kind of COWS have you by the
above standard?
The annual product of cheese in the
United States for the year 1876 was 3OO,-