Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-01-25
How to Make Dairying Pay.

EDIroRs WESTERN RURAL:-A great
many questions have been asked during
the past year upon the subject Of dairy
ing, its management and profit and the
quantity Of information desired has been
as varied as the thoughts and purposes
OF individuals are different. In order to
make dairying pay, judgment must be
exercised in selecting cows, and when a
good one is procured, keep her; if you
get a bad one, sell her. There are plen-
ty of cows in any breed that are admir-
ably adapted to dairy purposes. l would
as soon pick from the common natives
as from the most Of the fancy breeds
The next requisite is good stabling and
proper and plenty Of feed. You cannot
feed straw through threshing machine
and make it remunerative, but you can
good, well-matured grain. The COW is a
down milk. If you give her straw, it
does not pay; give her grain, it does
Judgment must be essential in feeding
grain, as it will not pay. 1t does not
pay to feed bran when your cows are on
pasture. Neither does it pay in winter
when you are feeding clover hay. Bran
that we get nowadays has very little
nutrition and should be supplemented
with stronger feed, such as corn meal.
I will explain further. Bran answers to
a certain extent for physic, and keeps
the system loose, which tends to flow
OF milk. This is the case when COWS
are on pasture and in winter when fed
on clover hay. If bran is fed under the
above conditions, 1 would consider the
money very nearly thrown away. There
is no better feed for winter than good
early cut timothy or clover hay-clover
preferred. At present prices of grain,
| would feed about two parts corn meal
and one part shorts. Neither would |
stint the grain to them 1t is better to
begin moderately and gradually increase
to about twenty pounds per day, ten
pounds at morning and ten at night
The same mixture would be admirable
feed also for fattening hogs.
But some one says your twenty TBS
of meal would cost about fifteen cents
per day, and you would have to have
good cows to average pound of butter
per day. The meal would cost very
nearly as much as we get for our butter,
which is at present eighteen cents.
! will say right here that it does not
pay to make eighteen cent butter, and
still two-thirds of the butter made is
sold at an average Of less than eighteen
cents. Then two-thirds of the butter
makers are losing money. With the
most of them it is not noticeable, still,
it is a fact 1t is better to keep only
two cows-enough to supply the family
than to keep more with the convenien-
ces had at the majority of farm houses.
1t is better to make business of dairy
ing than to be mixed up with everything
part cows and part something else.
A little reflection will show that you
could not give each the attention that
you would if you made some one branch
your study.
There is no reason why dairying, if
conducted properly, cannot be made to
pay at present prices of everything very
much better than any other branch OF
agriculture. There is always demand
for extra butter, and our large diaries OF
established reputation have found nc
difficulty during the past four months
to obtain thirty five cents a pound fol
their butter; and during the winter
months forty cents Then away with
small dairying, unless it be to have theil
milk made up at our many factories.-
The time is fast approaching when il
will be impossible to find market fo1
poor to medium butter at scarcely any
price This will discourage poor huttel
makers, and they will give up and eth
err take their milk to factories or sci
their cows to more cnterprising men.
J. p. G..