The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1889-01-03
The Arithmetic Of the Dairy.

The Arithmetic of the Dairy.
For Bureau of Dairy Information by John Gould.
The public tests of dairy COWS
within the past year have shown that
the 1000 pound COW is the one that
makes the best return for her food,
and all things considered is the best
one for the dairyman whose object is
milk, butter and cheese. If beef is
his object then shift the scene around
and make beef the essential quail
ty sought, and milk, an incidental;
because no practical showing has yet
been made other than theoretical fig
uring, that the best milk production
and cheapest beef-making, can be
wrapped up in the hide of one COW,
or that she has the power of giving a
bull calf that has great beef quail
ties, and next heifer calf that will
fulfill great expectations as a butter
and cheese cow The figures of low
yield and small butter production are
the best answer to this double re-
quirement of cow A sample of
the two classes is furnished by late
test of the two types. Cow No.
made a pound of butter from each
twelve pounds of milk. Cow No. 2
required 38 pounds of milk to make
a pound of butter. Cow No. I gave
milk with III per cent. of solids, of
which half was butter-fat; and COW
No. 2 only showed a milk with 12s
per cent. of solids. and only 81 per
cent. of 1t was butter fat. The ex-
cess in solids was in sugar that has
no market value. 1t is seen by these
and thousands of tests confirm them,
that man may have dairy Of great
performance in milk yield, which if
used from butter and cheese would
bankrupt him. His only way out
would be to get into factory where
he can pool his milk, pound fov pound
with his neighbors. The arithmetic
of the dairy shows that the idea of a
special cheese COW is also a delusion.
Not one COW in ten thousand puts
more cheese into her milk than butter,
so if she is half-pound butter COW
she is also half-pound cheese COW
no better. Another problem in
this arithmetic is, feeding COW will
not change the character of the milk.
If she is born butter COW the extra
feeding will simply, while increasing
the milk, increase all the solids in
equal proportion, and she will still
be the same COW. If the COW was a
"skim mixer the excess of food
will increase the yield, but the pro-
portions will still be there. 1t now
remains for the dairyman by testing,
to find whether the increase of but
ter and cheese paid for the extra
food consumed, and to know this he
must fall back upon the individual
test A COW is born with an individ
ual temperament as regards her dai.
ry performance. That is her indi-
viduality, No feeding can make her
give richer milk, only more, and
hence a greater amount of solids.
So the figures for the dairyman to
study are: a pail of milk may have
two pounds of butter in it, or only
one, or even half pound, He may
feed the COW SO that she may give
him twice that butter, but he must
get it by first getting twice as much
milk. Once more this arithmetic
says that the cream gauge will not
tell the story correctly. The cream
Of the COW must either be churned
as best it can, or it must be percent
ed with the oil test. The final arith
metlc is to find out-not guess. Did
the dairy pay its way? What did
its surplus leave the farmer for his
labor?