Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-05-31


part OF practical farmers. No two
authorities agree, and from the nature
OF the case, perhaps they could not
agree. The cost must vary with ey-
cry producer, in every herd. and
possibly it may vary every day in the
year.
SO many factors enter into the prob
lem that it may be considered almost
! impossible to determine the exact cost
OF quart of milk in any dairy.
A lecturer, practical farmer and
| dalryman, declares that a quart of
milk costs two and one third cents.
In TINS is included everything that
enters into the cost of the milk
taxes, labor, food, insurance. cost of
buildings, etc. This lecturer, whom |
will call Mr.. A, makes known the
fact that he sells eight quarts of milk
for twenty-five cents or three and one
eighth cents quart. He says further
that no progressive farmer will keep
a cow that does not give ten quarts
day for 800 days, or 5000 quarts
! year. Later in the lecture, however.
Mr.. A made known the fact that in
his herd of thirty-five cows, only four
or five gave ten quarts day for 300
days, thus advocating what he did
not practice
Now, If quart of milk costs two
and one third cents, then 5000 quarts
will cost seventy dollars. He sells
for three and one eighth cents, and
receives for the 5000 quarts 1913
and has a profit of $23.75.
In regard to ten-quart cows, the
cows that will give ten quarts a day
for 800 days, it may be said first
that they are about as scarce as white
blackbirds, and wherever found the
price is always a fancy price The
man who is able to own a ten-quart
COW is ready to pay the price, what
ever 1t is. A ten-quart COW has been
sold for $780, and it is believed that
the man who can own such a cow
will pay 800.
This incident may show how little
some farmers know exactly in regard
to their stock, or how ready they ara
to believe something of which they
have little knowledge. At an insti-
tute the lecturer asked how many
farmers had COWS that would give
ten quarts of milk day for 800 days,
and about thirty hands went up.
Evidently, the lecturer was surprised
to find so many remarkable COWS in
one small town. The chairman of the
institute was surprised too, and
asked, DO you understand thn nnnS-
ton? How many have cows that give
ten quarts d day for 300 days, or
5000 quarts a year, and can give a
written guaranty?' Not a hand was
raised.
If a ten-quart COW cost S1OO, and
the profit in year is S23.75, then the
return is more than twenty per cent.
of the investment. If railway shares
or bonds Of any kind would yield
twenty per cent, we would all invest
in that kind Of stock and be happy;
but it is a little different in ne case
of cows.
If the farmer depends upon the sale
of milk for his support-and the ma
jority of farmers near cities, and
many not near cities, do depend al
most wholly upon the sale of milk
it will be seen that if the farmer has
ten ten-quart COWS, his income would
be only $237.50; twenty cows, $475;
forty COWS, $3.50. And it may be sup
posed that $3.50 at least will be neces-
sary to support an average family
for Onc year in the way most farmers
wish to live.
These calcula tons are based upon
the product of the ten-quart COW, the
milk costing two and one third cents
a quart and selling for three and one
eighth cents, the price that farmers
received a short time ago for milk
sent to the Boston market. What is
wrong in the calculation? If the cost
of the milk be made more, then the
profit will be less if the selling price
remain.
| But it must be said that most farm
ers probably will declare that milk
costs more than two and one third
cents a quart, some saying that the
cost is three cents, others claiming
| that the cost is four cents a quart.
As to the selling price, that is certain.
Milk is selling today, or was short
time ago. for three and one eighth
cents; and many farmers have sold
every day for months ten quarts of
milk for twenty-eight cents, or two
and four-fifths cents a quart
But the ten-quart COW is the excep
tional cow If a farmer has cows that
give eight quarts day for 300 days,
even then he has what most farmers
have not. The conclusion is that If
the milk costs two and one third cents
a quart, and it is believed it cannot
cost less, the farmer is selling too
| near the cost line if he sells for two
and four fifths or three and one eighth
cents; and the farmer-many farm
er-does not know it, owing to the
lack of systematic bookkeeping.
It is a fact that farmers, alarmed at
the end of the year at the small sur
plus on hand have been led in con-
sequence to keep accounts, and as a
result, abandoned the business or
changed the product, convinced at
last that they had been doing a bust
ness that yielded no profit or not
enough to pay. Let every farmer
know what he is doing; figure out his
; business to the last fraction.
; am not selling milk, but I believe
, that the selling price is too low. Men
pay twenty-five and thirty cents a
: pound for steak and do not QUAR-
about it, but when the farmer raises