The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1896-08-28
Dairy.

A great point of value in a cow is
to have the milking habit firmly es-'
tablished, so that she does not dry
off soon after calving and indulge in
a long spell of unremunerative idle
ness. Such COW, in such intervals,
will eat up all the profit which has
accrued while she was being MIXED.
Dairymen who follow the plan of
keeping their cows ready for the
butcher at all times and selling
them for beef as soon as they be-
come strippers, avoid loss from an
idle COW, but they lose the chance to
build up a milking strain, and must
depend upon chance for new sup
plies and good dairy COW is not to
be bought every day.
Do we not all know good dairy
men, who understand how to make
the best use of their milk, barely
making a living because the poorer
half of their herd is continually eat
ing up the profits from the better?
1t would be far better if such a man
were to give away the poorer half of
his herd. 1t is Pharoah's dream
over again.
The poorest type of COW eats.
ravenously without yielding either
milk or beef in return, and though
practically eating up the best COW
remains "as i'll favored as at the be-
ginning Blindness upon this point
leads to debt, and ends in selling the
better cow, for the poorer will bring
nothing.
II will pay any man who has a
dozen good cows to own and use a
hand separator, and thus be able to
feed the skim milk to the calves and
pigs while it is yet warm. Some
times expensive things are an eco
nomical necessity, and really essen
tial to the highest success.
Brewers grains make a cheap food
for the dairy, but they should not be
relied upon exclusively. They pro-
mote the flow of milk, but do this
somewhat to the detriment of the
quality of the product. For butter
making, therefore, they are not to
be recommended.
If one intends to establish dairy
which shall grow better and better
constantly, the only way to proceed
is to breed and raise his own ami.
mails. The model dairy COW to-day
is largely the product of the breed
er's art, and the especial qualitie:
! for which she is wanted may be still
) further developed and intensified by
the same means.
The dairyman who depends upo:
replenishing his herd by buying
, when necessary, and turning off hi
/ stock to the butcher when its use
fulness has passed, can never hop,
for anything better than fair av
, erage of mixers, and, instead o
/, progressing steadily, his dairy pro
=. auctions will be subject to sharp ant
sudden fluctuations.
: By the continual use of bulls of tn,
best dairy families, and by the care
\ full selection and feeding of calves
= the productive capacity of the mill
=, herd may be improved from year t.
: year, and there is practically n
. limit to what may be accomplished
,, Let the new blood always be littl
:. better than the old.
= The markets of the butter eatin
{ world are ours, free from the chea
competition of Russia, India an
Argentine grain growers, as we ca
make butter with less expense. ]
q costs no more to ship $40 worth G
II butter to Europe than it does a dol
y lars worth of grain; and as we i'm
q prove our herds and our facilitie
s the interest in our products wi
u grow.