New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1879-08-27
WHOLE NUMBER 81
Knowledge In Dairying.

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Our present low prices ought to work
complete revolution in the dairy
mans plan of operations. The great
mass Of dairymen heretofore have
counted on the number of their cows,
instead of the amount of their prod
uct. In fact. they have not studied the
individual character of their cows
nor have they established any stand
ard by which these shall be tried.
They are judged as herd, and no eff
fort is made to determine the value of
each COW. With butter at Is to 20
cents per pound, and cheese at Z to
9 cents, . poor COW is the poorest
kind of investment. A yield Of $500
to 5000 pounds of milk will pay, aft
er deducting the expense of delivery
at the factory and cost of making, only
from S12.25 to $15. This will not pay
the cost of keep in any part of the
country. A loss of from $40 to $15
per cow would be incurred with each
animal. But the dairyman has ortke
COWS that pay, even in these times,
from 1926 to 1856, and it is these better
cows that prevent disastrous failure.
How utterly inexcusable in dairyman
it must be to go on, year after year,
retaining his Improbable COWS to eat
up all possible profits from the better
ones! What would be thought of
chair manufacturer who should make
style of chairs, year after year, and
sell them at rs per cent. below the cost
of production, simply because he had
not taken an account OF the cost of
manufacture?
Yet the dairymen who have an accu-
rate knowledge of the production of
each individual COW in the herd, do
not amount to moro than one in hum
dred. But if the dairyman would study
his business thoroughly, he would fix
standard below which no cow can
pay him a profit, and consequently
any animal whose yield falls below
this, must be discarded. With the
most satisfactory prices, COW giving
less than 1900 pounds of milk pays no
profit worth having; and now, when
prices are very low, the standard
should be advanced to 5000 pounds
per COW. Selected herds average
5000 to 1000 pounds, and there is no
insuperablc difficulty in raising the
standard for the poorest COW to 5000
pounds.
A cow that will not, under good food
and care, reach this standard, should
be fattened and sent to the butcher.
She has no value to the progressive
dairyman as a milk-pr0ducer for
cheese. For the cheese factory she is
judged wholly by her weight Of milk;
but if the standard is to be fixed for
butter, then the weight of good butter
and not the weight of milk is most i'm
portant. This requires separate test
of each COW for butter. And here it
may frequently happen that the cow
that would be discarded for cheese
would be accepted for butter-making.
A yield of 200 pounds of butter per
cow should be the lowest standard for
o butter COW; 200 pounds of the best
butter will bring as much money as 500
pounds of the best cheese. Some cows
will average a production of pound
of butter to 20 pounds of milk, and thus
1000 pounds of milk from such COW
will reach the standard. t
The first tcst-that of Weights 80
easily made that no dairyman can have
valid excuse for emitting it. A small
spring scale, hung in q convenient
place in the w-stable, with q small
book, containing the name of each
COW, and a pencil attached, will enable
the mixer to weigh and record tho
yield of each COW, one day in week,
with no appreciable loss of time. These
wcighings added, and the sum divided
by the whole number of weighings, will
give the average yield per day with
sufficient accuracy. There is no reli-
able way of determining The butter
yield, except in churning the cream
and weighing the butter.
The future successful dairyman must
study and fully understand all the fact
ors in the problem. Skill is the sign
by which he must conquer. KnowI-
edge and skill are required in the sue
cessful engineer, navigator, ship
builder, surgeon, lawyer, statesman,
and these are no less needed by the
successful dairyman. - Rural Ne,o
Yorker.